The End is the Beginning
by iryder
Summary: I wrote this after season 9 and during season 10 because I was tired of the writers beating up on the couple. To all who love Calzona...an unabashed happy ending for our couple. Previously posted on AO3 with my other works. Widowed for over a decade, we follow Callie on her ultimate journey to her long lost wife. CALZONA FOREVER!


**R U A Calzona fan? I wrote this after season 9 and during season 10 because I was tired of the writers beating up on the couple. To all who love(d)Calzona...an unabashed happy ending for our couple. Previously posted on AO3 with my other works.**

"Callie!" a familiar voice calling her name from far away. "Callie!" she heard it again.

Callie Torres slowly opened her eyes. _Where am I?_ She knew this place... maybe. Her head was fuzzy. She was on a porch, wooden slats firm beneath her feet, ocean straight ahead. She scanned the beach below her.

"Callie!" her head stopped turning abruptly. A woman, thin with long dark reddish hair was waving to her from the water's edge. Her movements seemed familiar but Callie couldn't quite place her.

_I must be dreaming. Grey, that's little Grey. Why am I dreaming about Lexi?_ She thought to herself. A grey mist pooled around her and she felt herself falling.

"Mama?" Sophia asked softly. Callie opened her eyes with a start, inhaling abruptly. Her bed, she was in her bed, dying, that's right, she was at the end of her life. And close too judging by the looks on the faces of the people around the room.

"Lexi?" she said weakly, attempting to move a heavy limb.

Sophia looked at her siblings first and then at the others. "Lexi?" she mouthed.

A small sturdy woman in the back of the room turned to her male colleague. Their eyes met knowingly.

"Sophia" Callie said. "Boys," she nodded weakly towards Timothy Jr. and Carlos. They hadn't been boys in decades but no matter. "It's getting close" a tear escaping one eye." I love you. Always have and always will. Nothing will ever change that". She inhaled painfully. "You guys are in charge now, in charge of our family, the Torres-Robbins clan. Take care of yourselves and each other". Tears streamed down the faces of everyone in the room. Callie had so much more and nothing to say. She'd said it all. When her cancer returned she knew it was going to eventually take her. She fought hard, badass, Torres hard. But one day after being sick for so long from the chemo, her mental strength waning from the endless self-pep talks, she decided to stop fighting. She guessed she had a few months at the most and she was going to enjoy them holding her grandchildren and keeping an eye on Timothy Jr.'s wife, Carmen.

Carmen was fiery, sexy, aggressive, opinionated and liked getting her way. Oh, the resemblance to herself didn't go unnoticed of course but she had been nothing like Carmen. It irritated Callie that Carmen just seemed unnecessarily larger than life at times. She and Arizona had differences from the start about Carmen being a good wife to Timothy Jr. He was the youngest. Strong, secure but quieter that their other children.

"T seems good, Calliope, really taken with her." Arizona said when Timothy Jr. first brought Carmen home to meet his moms.

"Yes, I'm sure he is...and, I know why" she cocked her head and one eyebrow at her blond haired blue eyed wife.

_Oh, this is gonna be good_ thought Arizona as she returned her wife's stare, half smiling , waiting to see if the Latina dared to explain out loud.

Callie decided not to elaborate further and huffed out of the kitchen. Several days later at the hospital, she took her case up with Miranda Bailey.

"Headstrong? Name is Carmen you say?" Bailey looked directly in Callie's eyes but kept her clinical poker face on. "Is she doing something illegal?" she questioned.

"No, of course not" Callie dismissed the thought.

"Is she mistreating Timmy?" Bailey always called her god son by his 5 year old name. "Not that I imagine that could happen, he's his other mother's son and was in the Marine Core as I recall," Bailey slowed her words for effect.

"No, she's just over the top, on everything!" Callie continued to plead her case.

"Really...do you mean over the top like secretly living in the basement of the hospital or getting married in Vegas to someone you only knew for a few months? Over the top like a puny 3rd year Resident taking her first walk down ladies' lane with the Chief of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery?" Bailey glared back in the way only she can...waiting.

Callie was silent, staring back. "Well when he came by to pick up Arizona yesterday, he seemed over the moon" Bailey continued.

"Oh of course he's happy, I know her kind" Callie said frustrated.

"Really, you mean the kind who locks up on-call rooms on a regular basis for various hi-jinks to land herself a world class Peds surgeon when she's only a resident? Not even a real surgeon yet?" Bailey's face set in stone. Callie stared back at her. Miranda dramatically picked up her patient's chart, turning on her heal walked towards the ward "Mmmm..., "she dragged out looking over her shoulder, "I wonder what he sees in her?"

Callie stormed off. No one, no one was taking her seriously!

**Chapter 2**

It's funny what you remember, facing the end of your life. Callie remembered laughing. Countless times over the years she made herself feel better by replaying memories of squaring off with Arizona on some silly competition, each trying to one-up the other. Most times the story ended in them laughing together, trying not to fall off the sofa. Love… the intense moments. Callie remembered the first night she and her wife spent together. They had taken it slow, initially to Callie's irritation but after a while she saw it was the better path. With their busy schedules, it takes a little longer to get to know each other than if you are dating while working a 9 to 5 job. "I want to do this right" Arizona answered to an advance from Callie early on, but did plan and execute a series for kisses and more designed to advance their relationship around the bases so the incredibly hot Latina didn't get bored! When the day came, Callie was ready but did freak out a few times worrying she was out of her league then rebounding her confidence by fixating on giving Arizona the best night of her life. Arizona took a more relaxed approach "Whatever feels good," which worked out just fine. The pressure was off, they kissed for some time on Callie's sofa, then spent the night getting to know each other's bodies. Success under their belts, the couple quickly added fiery encounters in on-call rooms at the hospital but Callie always cherished that their first time hadn't been like that.

Rites of passage. Bringing Sophia home, Arizona having Carlos and then Timothy Jr. Callie wasn't able to conceive after the car accident. Addison Montgomery ran every test known to medicine and medically she was fine, but nothing took after that. During that time, Callie often cried telling Arizona that her body must have given up. _Thank God I married a woman_, Callie often thought. First days of school, buying their house, graduations and raising their family.

Arizona turned out to be much better at the teen years; hormones, dating and birds and the bees stuff. Arizona had a way about her. A way of laying things out gently and openly while her badass ortho surgeon wife sat at the other end of the table trying not to gulp her wine. Somehow, Arizona just knew when each of their kids was ready and started what felt like natural ongoing conversations about values, love, sex, and how to be in relationships. She had a way of making the truth acessable and straight forward. "Of course I think they're too young Callie but the fact is, teenagers have sex. I don't want ours out in the world without protection, information and a safe place to land." Arizona stated simply one evening while they were making dinner. "So, we're putting condoms in the kids' bathroom and they can bring up sex anytime they want to, even at the dinner table". Callie heard her mother wailing in her head.

College, weddings, Timothy Jr. graduating from boot camp, becoming grandmothers. The family vacations to San Diego every year, the beach house. _Lexi? Did I see Lexi at the beach house? No Lexi died in the plane crash, before we ever went to the beach house. My mind is foggy today._

"Mama?" Timothy Jr. said softly, Callie's eyes snapped open. "Mama, did you see Mom?" Timothy Jr. asked hopefully.

"I'm going to see her sweetie," she reassured her youngest. That's what she always told herself anyway. Not that she was sure she believed it. It was mostly to keep the pain of losing Arizona at bay, mostly. Callie's vision was getting hazy, she willed her hands to move, squeezing the younger hands resting in hers. Her kids were on the bed near her, Sophia and Carlos each holding a hand, Timothy Jr. with his hand on her shoulder. "Mama and Mom love you very much" Callie wasn't sure if she thought it or said it. Tears were flowing off the cheeks of those who loved her. A white fog enveloped her as she drifted away.

**Chapter 3**

"Callie!" she heard the voice call again from a distance.

_Shit, it is Little Grey_ Callie told herself. She had seen or was she seeing her at the beach house they rented every summer. That's where she was, _on the deck of the._... Callie looked towards Little Grey, down by the water, arms swinging over her head. _Signaling?_ She turned back to look at the house. _My family, kids, Arizona are in...No, Arizona was gone and the kids aren't there either_ she reasoned. They hadn't rented that beach house in many, many years. As the kids grew older, they had their own lives. It was harder to get everyone together. Callie and Arizona traveled to see their kids who settled all over the country and when they went to the beach for a romantic vacation, they didn't need 4 bedrooms.

_Am I supposed to stay or go?_ She waved at Little Grey, turned back to the house, then back to the ocean. She knew she had to leave the porch, walk away, but she wasn't quite ready yet. Callie studied the porch, the back of the house. Remembered Carlos taking his first step almost where she was standing. Arizona cooking on the grill, leaning on the rail watching the kids run around on the sand below. Evenings looking up at the stars followed by romantic nights. _The nice thing about the beach is the kids are always tired at the end of the day_ her wife used to say with a smile.

The memories and warm feelings that overwhelmed her when she first recognized where she was started to fade. A few minutes later she turned gingerly to her right and headed towards the stairs leading down to the beach. At the bottom of the stairs, cool sand greeted her bare feet. One more look at the house…that was over, she knew she had died now and turned to walk towards Little Grey. _What the he.. she thought as she got closer. Little Grey? Really? Where is Arizona? My parents? Mark? She hadn't known Lexi all that well_.

"Lexi?" Callie called, offering a tentative wave. Lexi waived back, the two surgeons making their way towards each other. Callie stopped abruptly in front of Lexi, she turned back to look at the house, it was all but enveloped. _Fog must be rolling in_. As they approached each other, Callie looked at the young woman. "But what? How? Callie was confused. "Where are we?" I was in my bed, then the house. Is this Heaven? San Diego?"

"Not exactly, but it's a good place," Lexi acknowledged without surprise.

"Why you?" Callie asked, never one to beat around the bush.

"Callie," she said gently in a familiar tone, calming her former colleague, "I meet everyone from the plane crash".

"But I wasn't in the..." Callie started.

Lexi smiled sweetly, putting her finger over her lips, gently indicating _Shhh._ "Let's walk for a while". Callie took one last look back, the house was completely covered in fog. She turned and walked in the direction Little Grey was leading, falling instep next to her. Lexi, wrapped her elbow through Callie's pulling her close. The two continued down the beach arm in arm in silence.

**Chapter 4**

As she walked, Callie was realizing what it felt like to be pain free. She could move and breathe easily. Her mind felt misty though, she was sure she had a million questions but they stayed just out of reach in her consciousness. Right now, she was focused on the plane crash of so many years ago, a plane crash she wasn't even in.

As if reading her mind, Lexi stated simply; "It didn't happen to you Callie, but it happened to your marriage, and your wife, and you best friend. In the scheme of things, you actually lost the most".

Callie contemplated these truths. After a while she turned to her former friend. "Everyone who survived was so traumatized, fighting their own battles. It was hard to get a lot of details on what happened to you." Callie said genuinely. "Did-?"

"-No," Lexi cut in, "I didn't suffer much". Tears welled up in Callie's eyes but a sense of calm was also settling in.

"Over the years, I've gotten some of the story but Arizona said she wasn't near you. None of them could even talk when they got back. Mark died then things went from bad to worse for us because of her leg and all."

Lexi was quiet for a few minutes. "Mark tried; he tried to lift the section of the plane I was pinned under. But, it wasn't possible. He was desperate for me to hold on but I knew I wasn't leaving those woods. I died pretty soon after we crashed. I hovered around for a while thinking I could help but everyone was so distressed that they couldn't feel me. Meredith suffered terribly, she cried day and night. You know you guys always called me Little Grey and treated me like I was Meredith's sister but she and I really didn't have that much time to get to know each other. I was surprised at how deeply she hurt. It hit me that once she made the decision we were moving forward as sisters, she made me a part of her. Mostly erasing all the years we hadn't grown up together".

Callie kept walking arm in arm down the beach, she did wonder what the point of this conversation was though. She was dead? Dying? Dreaming? _No, I died_, she reminded herself.

"Mark hung on for you, well Arizona actually. He felt like failed when he couldn't save me so he lived to try to get Arizona back to you and Sophia," a note of sadness creeping into her voice. "He loved Arizona. Not in the same way he loved you. Thank god, I wouldn't have been able to handle two hot women waltzing in to talk to my boyfriend while he's naked in the shower." She laughed as they both remembered the time.

"Hey, I said I wouldn't do it again and I never did!" Callie fired back, they both laughed. "Loved Arizona?" Callie questioned?

"Loved but struggled to like at times. Arizona is who he thought he could have been if he hadn't been kicked around so much as a kid, he felt damaged." Lexi explained.

"What? He was a renowned surgeon, great dad, golden-boy of Seattle Grace, he-"

Lexi cut her off "-Arizona had a wife she was in love with and who loved her. You two orbited each other in a way that made it possible for you to make it through some unbelievable tragedies. Secretly, sometimes more than others, he was angry, searching, pissed that he may never get to feel that. And when it did happen for him, he didn't recognize it in time ".

"Oh" Callie said quietly. "So you know he loved you, I know Mark and he-"

"-I know, he's working on it" Little Grey replied cryptically. They walked along in silence some more.

"Hey Lexi, where are we going anyway?" Callie turned to ask.

"You're heading in the right direction, just keep going" Lexi smiled at her former friend.

Callie realized Little Grey was staying behind, "Wait, I'll wait for you, come with me" Callie bargained, trying to adjust to her new circumstances.

"Callie, it's ok, you got everything you needed from me, you're doing fine. Just keep walking" she assured her.

"I don't want to be alone" Callie felt herself starting to panic. One look from Little Grey and her emotions, stilled, enough anyway. _You're never alone_, she heard in her head. The fog was rolling in on Lexi now. Callie watched until she lost sight of her completely, then turned to head in the direction they had been going. A soft white light enveloped her, she felt her body relax as she fell asleep. Or was she floating?

**Chapter 5**

Callie thought she heard voices, mumbling but definitely voices. Drifting, half awake, half asleep. She had no idea how much time had passed or exactly where she was but her body felt good, her mind and heart more peaceful, _Am I floating?_

The commotion increased. Clearly something was going on with the others, voices getting louder and more people talking. Taking a deep breath, Callie's eyes popped open. She recognized her surroundings immediately. The OR Viewing gallery at Grey + Sloan Memorial. OR3 to be exact. Callie looked down on the familiar scene. Surgeons, the ones she had known and worked her whole career with were swarming around a patient on the table. Owen, Meredith, Karev, Chief Bailey and Shepard were moving fast and talking fast. In the room below, the OR door flew open as a familiar figure burst in the room wearing a burgundy and white scrub cap holding a mask over her mouth.

All at once, Callie realized where she was. Arizona was on the table, this is the day she died. The intensity around the operating table increased, a swarm of arms, hands, surgical instruments, beeping monitors. The familiar figure in the corner of the room started for the table but was warded off as Owen stopped her short "Callie, NO!". Her feet froze, glued to the OR floor. She started forward again, an intern purposely blocked her path. He must have been ordered to do this on pain of death as Callie was prepared to dispense of anyone or anything in her way. "Callie, I said back off!" Owen's deep voice shouted in warning. In the viewing gallery above, Callie didn't want to keep watching. This had been the most painful day of her life, the day Arizona didn't come home from the hospital. The steady blare of the cardiac monitor flat lining below dominated the room, the familiar figure below wrapped her arms around her waist buckling in pain. The activity slowed as the surgeons looked at each other and the former patient on the table. Callie slammed her eyes shut in desperation, pressed her hand to her ears forcefully and floated away, this was too much to bear.

**Chapter 6**

She was losing track of time, had it been a minute, a day? She found herself walking down a hallway in the hospital. It was unusually quiet. 4 West, she recognized immediately. But no one was there. No hustle and bustle in the hallways, no one at the nurse's station. Peeking into one room, then another, she was alone. Callie caught a glimpse of her hand as she slipped it into the pocket of her white lab coat, then slowly withdrew the appendage to take a closer look. It was her hand, but it was young again. She walked into the next patient room and flung open the bathroom door, staring straight into the mirror. She saw herself, but the self she only knew from pictures. Gone were the testaments of having lived a long life. She was 73. Yes, all the kids and grandkids came for her 73rd birthday. But the woman in the mirror had jet black, silky hair cascading over her shoulders and down her back. Her brown skin soft and smooth she noticed gently rubbing her cheek._ I must be in my early 30's?_ she questioned herself.

Taking a minute to look down at her body and turning to check out her back side. _Wow, that thing is higher than I remember_ she admired. After a few minutes more of observation, satisfied that she was indeed hotter than ever and knew what to do with it, she left the mirror and headed down the hallway to the nurses' station. _No charts?_ she noticed. Callie realized the floor was completely empty as she walked the hallways. Thinking she was glad to be young again but wondering, _What am I supposed to do? I have no patients_.As she approached her starting point, the automatic doors to the unit opened to her left. Strange, she remembered the doors opened into the unit, not out into the adjoining hallway. She walked through the doors turning back to watch the unit doors close slowly behind her. Understanding now, _I'm not supposed to be there anymore._ And walked into the adjoining corridor.

A repeating high pitched squeak caught her attention before she rounded the next corner. Then she saw him. Travis, Travis Green. _What?_ His surgery had ended tragically years ago, turning him from a world class snow board champion into a double aka. And, sending Callie to court for a bitter malpractice suit. The young man continued wheeling himself away from her. The haunting squeak of his chair echoed in the empty hallway. Callie hesitated, he hadn't see her yet, she could head somewhere else. Pursing her lips and looking down at the floor, she decided to stay and started towards him.

"Travis?" she called from a few feet away hoping her voice projected more calm and assurance than she was actually made a quarter turn to look directly at her. His eyes were full of pain, she remembered those eyes. The grief, the fright, the anger of a young man waking up to find only stumps half the length of his thigh left below his waist. "Where are...I mean I know where we are but what are you doing here?"

"You must be looking for something" he stated plainly, "I'm looking too." then turned back and proceeded the direction he had been going. The cyclical squeak of his wheelchair resumed as Callie walked next to him. Callie wondered what she was looking for. She did feel like she was supposed to keep moving _but where?_ The two arrived at the double doors leading into the atrium. Callie felt the urge to walk through them but Travis turned left instead. Callie inhaled to speak when Travis looked up at the surgeon who had changed his life.

"Have you seen my legs?" he asked, tears forming in his eyes. Callie started in horror. "I can't find them, I know had then when I came here but I can't find them" Travis told her plaintively.

"How long have you been here?" Callie's heart pounding in her ears.

"I died in a fire in 2022. My house burned down and I couldn't get out in time" he said

_That was decades ago…_ she pondered for a moment. Callie took a deep breath and took charge of the situation. "After they are removed, we take them to a room in the basement. I'll take you there" sliding her hands into the pockets of her lab coat and gesturing with her head for him to follow. They took the south elevator to the basement and started down the long hallway, Squeak, squeak, squeak... reminded the wheelchair. Callie stopped at the light green door. "This is it? Travis looked up hopefully. Callie nodded a sick feeling in her stomach. She reached for the doorknob when Travis' large hand suddenly grabbed her arm. She jumped screaming out loud. Turning her head, she looked down at Travis again. Suddenly he looked different, totally different. Relieved? Lighter? She put her hand on his. He was smiling now, almost beaming.

"Thanks Doc" he assured her flashing a toothy smile as he pulled Callie's arm back from the door and put his own hand on the doorknob. Opening the door he rolled his wheelchair in. Turning back to Callie he smiled broadly.

"Do you need help? I mean…." Callie wasn't even sure what she was offering to do but he was her patient and apparently she was the only doctor in the hospital.

"I got this" he said excitedly and closed the door behind him, _separating us forever?_ Callie wondered.

**Chapter 7**

Callie felt a weight lifting off her shoulders and standing in the empty hallway outside the "parts department" as staff ruefully referred to it, she assessed her situation. _Holy crap, he's been here for decades_! No, no she can't do this, panic was setting in. She can't roam these empty halls running into her former patients, helping them find their limbs. _I'm dead now. A_lthough she spent her life and career in this hospital, a feeling of dread overcame her as she understood she didn't want to be here anymore. Heading for the elevator, she stabbed the up button several times, even after the light came on. _Lexi, where's Lexi?_ _She said I wouldn't be alone. Travis, he found what he needed, what did I leave here?_ Her mind was moving faster now as she balled her fists in her pockets. The elevator doors opened as her pager vibrated. She checked it quickly "OR 3 STAT. Callie took off running, her head spinning with the events of the day. Grateful for the STAT page but aware she was running away from what just happened more than running to her paged location.

Callie flung the OR doors open and stopped cold in confusion. She was back in the viewing gallery. Looking back out the doors she saw the scrub sinks, she should be in OR3 itself, not the gallery above it? Callie stood looking down, forehead pressed against the cool glass, recognizing the familiar scene. She had been here before, a long time ago and recently. _What the…?_ she thought. A sense of dread settled fully on her. No, absolutely No! She couldn't do this again she schooled herself. Losing her wife, lover, best friend, mother of her children had been the worst day of her life. They had over 30 years together and although she enjoyed her life, children, grandchildren, friends and a research and teaching career, she never felt whole again after Arizona's death. Never shared her bed with a woman, or with anyone. Never awoke in the arms of a lover. Never felt the soft relief of another caressing her body. "No No No!" she screamed, tears pooling, head whipping from side to side in an effort to shake off the mortal offense below her. She wanted to run but her legs wouldn't move. She knew she had to stay. Willing herself strength from who knows where, she burst into tears as her eyes opened. She pressed her palms to the glass, on either side of her head, watching the scene below unfold in slow motion. Callie heaved in pain…helpless…abandoned. After what felt like hours, but was surely less, Chief Bailey draped a white sheet over the body on the table, the familiar figure in the burgundy and white scrub cap below turned and quietly walked out of the OR. As she crossed the threshold a low rumble started deep in the Callie in the viewing gallery. The rumble made its way up into her throat and everyone stopped and looked up as a scream filled the viewing gallery. A cry to the heavens. No, please No. Not this. Give her back! Callie felt enveloped, her plea raging through and around her. She had no control, locked into a dark tornado of anger, the rage of fear, loss and sorrow now filling her known universe.

**Chapter 8**

The first time she felt it was a brief flash, a millisecond of relief inside her, relief from the raging storm around her. Then came another, then another. In her mind's eye, she saw a small, clear space forming in her heart. Tiny, the size of a grain of sand at first, but definitely growing. Over time the roaring chaos started to subside as the clear, open space in her chest expanded, a wave of warmth flowing with it until finally, the air was peaceful, noise was gone and Callie was back in the viewing gallery of OR 3. On impulse, she turned to look behind her. _Seats, stadium seats, yes, that was right_. She felt the urge to sit down. No, she couldn't do it._It's time_, she heard her own voice in her head. Her gaze shifted back and forth several times between the seats and the OR scene below her. Nothing moved. Callie leaned towards the glass, the howl started building in her. She turned and stepped towards the chairs and the rumble subsided. _What the ? _ She took another step, knowing now the path before her.

Since the day Arizona died, she refused to sit in the gallery of OR 3. She operated in the actual room many times, heading up the innovative surgery program she created, doing her own surgeries, assisting other surgeons. But she never again stood above looking down. Callie realized this small protest, unspoken and frankly unnoticed by others gave her the denial she needed. The tiniest hope that Arizona wasn't dead. That some unbelievable scenario was possible where she would look across a room, see her wife smiling back, Arizona would come home to her. _Irrational?_ obviously, the determined surgeon knew. _Crazy? You know it_ she used to tell herself proudly. _Let go of it? I wouldn't hold my breath_ her tone meant as a stern warning to all who would challenge her view. Callie balled her fists in her pockets and took one last look through the looking glass...

"Three steps, then put your ass in the seat Torres", she said out loud. The three steps went quickly, she turned to lower herself when hesitation set in. Bolting upright, she looked back at the seat, looked to the OR below, suddenly wondering why she felt so alone, for so long now. Dr. Calliope Torres, Ortho goddess, sexy latina, mother, wife, lover, teacher, daughter, sister, doctor. Yes Doctor she admitted to herself. She loved her life, but a secret she kept to herself, one many women surgeons do as to not upset the status quo around them, being a surgeon was the most meaningful thing in her life. She loved her family but spent her career saving lives. Nothing beat the good days in the life of a surgeon. Lowering her body, Callie felt the seat beneath her, the backrest upon her. She sat in the chair. The chair she avoided for the rest of her life on earth

Looking back down into the OR, the faces below her, some masked, some unmasked, hands still covered by bloody gloves, all nodded in unison, smiling up at her. One by one the surgical team gave her a final acknowledgment and left the OR. In the end, Karev stayed behind, standing watch over his former mentor and friend. Callie stared down at Arizona' sheet covered body and realized she was right where she was supposed to be. She didn't feel the need to go see it. Been there, done that. She let the stillness around her settle in. After about 20 minutes, Jack and Monica from the morgue team entered the room. They looked up to Callie respectfully awaiting her approval to take the body, everything was over now. Callie nodded affirmatively and they nodded back. They took care to be gentle with Arizona as they moved her onto their stretcher and rolled her out of Callie's view, Karev went with them. Callie sat quietly, looking around the room, and closely at her hands, the hands of a surgeon. _Surgeons save lives._

Finally, exhaling deeply she understood, a part of her had never moved on. She knew it now, she knew it then. It was her silent but unwavering protest to the universe that she would not be beaten. Callie clasped her hands together, threading her fingers between each other as she learned one did when they were praying "hard", elbows on her knees she brought her thumbs to her lips. Staring down at the empty room, she felt…. _satisfied? Maybe. Completed is more like it_. Whatever lay ahead in her so called afterlife, nothing would ever be as bad as this. Even if God's cruel joke was that she spent eternity recovering the limbs she'd severed over the years.

A newly familiar urge was building in her again, an urge to leave. First from her bed on earth, then the beach house in San Diego, 4 West, and from the basement. Callie stood up from her seat and stepped forward, forehead and palms pressing on the cool glass for a final look. "Goodbye Arizona. I was never the same without you" announcing her deep truth. Callie noticed she felt a little teary but mostly relieved. She would walk away from here a different woman/spirit, whatever the heck she was now. She sighed and pressed tighter against the glass, knowing it was her last time to see OR3, the room where Dr. Arizona Robbins made her final stand, and lost. Just then Callie heard a squeak over the loudspeaker. Her eyes got big thinking Travis was back! A sense of horror overcame her. _Holy crap! Am I going to have to go down there and sew his legs back on!?_ Relief flooded through her when she saw Roberto pushing his mop bucket in the room below.

Callie had forgotten. He was the last of the last. He washed everything away. Walking into the room after he finished, you would never know what came before. He looked up, his eyes meeting hers. Callie remembered that his wife died a year before Arizona. She remembered overhearing the nurses talking about him. "He's not the same any more, he never got over losing her". Callie smirked slightly. "My friend, I know exactly what you mean" she said quietly, wishing she had taken the time to acknowledge him when she had been alive. They had a defining characteristic in common. Roberto looked up at the thought and gently waived to her. Callie moved her fingertips back and forth across the glass back at him as he left the room.

Callie was readying to leave when a familiar melodic voice asked gently from the doorway behind her. "Ortho right?"

Callie froze. _Could it be?_

"Arizona Robbins, Peds surgery…. Hey are you ok?"

A smile started across Callie's face as she lifted her forehead and looked over her shoulder. There she stood, in all her glory. Beautiful blonde locks, blue eyes for days, a knowing smile and dark blue scrubs with her hospital ID hanging just right of her center, Callie liked looking at that ID as it hung next to one of her favorite places to be.

Callie looked up for a moment and laughed in relief. "You know I'm fine" wiping the final tear from her cheek. Callie breathed in the sight of the woman across the room. _Could it be? Yes, it was_ she told herself. Arizona was home again.

**Chapter 9**

"Arizona?" Callie was asking but knew the answer she wanted. It was her but then the circumstances were so strange. _What the? No, I'm not questioning this. If it's too good to be true, I'll know soon enough._ Right now, her dream was coming true. Arizona was back.

Arizona saw Callie pause and have a brief discussion with herself. _Some things never change_ she smiled to herself. Arms outstretched, "It's me, I've been waiting for you."

Callie felt tears pooling in the corner of her eyes as she basically flew the fifteen feet between them, grabbing her much missed wife tight around the neck. It felt like Arizona. Her body, the smell of her skin, her shampoo all familiar. Callie pulled back, putting her hands on either side of the face in front of her. "Arizona, where are we? I have so many questions; you won't believe the day I had. We're young again. I died. The kids were all there and Karev and Bailey and I walked with Little Grey at the ocean and then the fog covered the house in San Diego and Travis is here too, remember Travis? He's been looking for his legs" Callie rambled. It sounded like gibberish, even to her. She would have dismissed it except she actually lived this sequence of events.

The blonde wanted to answer Callie's questions but had one thing to do first. Arizona spun them around, gently pushing Callie's back against the wall. Placed her hands on either side of Callie's face and leaned hard into her. The brunette was stopped mid-sentence by a soft pair of lips pressing into hers. Callie breathed out through her nose, softened her lips more so Arizona 's could sink deeper in. They learned during a rough spot early in their marriage that sometimes doing was better than talking.

After a long minute Callie came up for air, breathing heavy, she looked deeply into the blonde's blue eyes. "It is you".

"It's Ok Callie, I'm here now" she smiled, nodding at her.

Callie felt tears gently streaming down her cheeks. "It's you, it's really you right?"

"Yes, it's me, the big A" Arizona did her best to reassure.

Callie laughed, remembering the nickname Alex Karev had given Arizona decades before.  
Callie sputtered out a half laugh half cry. "I've had a really rough day and I'm fried" her voice getting higher. "I missed you! How long..? Where are we exactly?"

"I can answer your questions but right now I'd rather take you to the on-call room around the corner she whispered…..What works for you?" Arizona said looking up at Callie.

Callie's answer was to force a fiery, desperate kiss on her former/current/new lover, the lips she had missed for so long. "On-call room, definitely the on-call room" she breathed out.

As they started to leave, Callie suddenly felt scared. "Wait", she stopped short of the doorway grabbing Arizona's arm. "We're really going together right because everyone else I've met today stayed where I found them and… "

Arizona understood that some of Callie's questions couldn't wait; she was desperate to rip her clothes off and show her how much she missed her but couldn't bear seeing her wife frightened like this.

Arizona reached to touch the side of Callie's face hoping to quell her fears, "Yes Callie, you get to choose who you're going to be with when you come up here. You chose me. That's why I came to meet you. I've been waiting for you. We're together now".

Callie breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn't sure about anything but trusted Arizona and leaned in to kiss her again.  
From the corner of her eye, Callie thought she saw the wall move. Breaking the kiss, she looked at Arizona, then around the room. "The fog is rolling in?" She questioned arching an eyebrow.

"Well, it's kind of fading. You finished what you needed to here so it's going away." Arizona said assuredly. Callie decided to just believe her. Stranger things had happened today.

"We should get out of here right? Callie asked, looking around, unsure.

"It's actually." Arizona stopped herself, remembering how it was when she first arrived. It took time to get used to things happening differently. "Good point" she decided to say. "Let's walk out together". Callie took her hand and they walked the way of the layout of their old hospital. Down the hallway to the elevator, pressing the button then getting in.

The doors closed in front of them and Callie looked to Arizona. "Where are we going?" Callie asked

"I'm taking you home" Arizona smiled sweetly, pulling her closer. The bell rang indicating the elevator was at it's destination and the couple walked hand in hand towards the glass doors, past the familiar coffee cart and out into what seemed like an unusually bright day for Seattle. A few minutes later, Callie turned back to see the fog rolling in behind her, the hospital was almost completely covered. She flashed back on her walk with Little Grey and squeezed Arizona's hand tighter,

_I don't want this to end _Callie thought as she exhaled loudly, a million questions coming into her mind, all wanting to be asked at once.

"We may be walking awhile why don't you tell me what happened today" Arizona was honestly interested.

Callie relayed the recent events. Saying goodbye on earth, The beach house in San Diego. "Did Lexi meet you? she asked

"Yep, she meets everyone from the plane crash" Arizona said honestly.

"Because?..." Callie asked.

"Because to differing degrees, none of us got all the way out of those woods 4 days later when the rescue chopper found us.

"But I wasn't in the crash" Callie said, curiously

"You weren't?" Arizona teased, then relented. "Callie, back then I made a big distinction, dividing the world into those who were on the plane and those who weren't. That was the wrong line to draw. The only meaningful division was between those who were affected by it and those who weren't. I had to learn that first hand when I got up here. I'm sorry I blew it when we were together down there".

"Well we got over it" Callie offered thinking it was a strange day, she hadn't remembered talking about the crash in decades. Arizona's residual limb should have been a reminder but over time it just became her left leg. No longer hearkening back to the past until someone asked about it, like their grand-kids or a new acquaintance.

"More like I made it difficult to talk about it and you decided to handle what you could on your own and try to forget the rest" Arizona stated the long unspoken truth. Arizona spun on her heal, stopping their forward progress, holding Callie's biceps. "I'm truly sorry. It was a big mistake to be angry at you when in all the ways that matter, it happened to you too"

Callie smiled down at Arizona. "Thank you for saying that. We made it though, we had it pretty great for many years".  
They two started down the street again hand in hand, Callie noticing a bakery across the street she had always loved.  
Where are we going anyway? There's more walking in heaven than I realized".

Arizona laughed, she had missed Callie's sarcastic humor, "we're heading back to our old condo, across from the hospital"

"But we've gone to far. It was only a 5 minute walk before" Callie tried to reconcile her memory with her current experience.

"We're going in the right direction Callie, things are a little different here, you'll see. Up here, our destination is exactly as far as it takes for us to become who we need to be to walk through the next door" Arizona explained

Callie took this under advisement and although weird, decided not to question it right now. She was dead, Arizona was holding her hand. Odd for sure but just fine too.

Arizona broke the silence. "Do you want to talk about what happened? San Diego, Travis? the OR?"

"I think I'm getting it." Callie said cautiously. "The beach house in San Diego, some of my fondest memories of our life, our family were there. Lexi? you said she meets everyone from the plane crash. She told me I was part of it, and she talked about Mark, it was strange, she must have made a mistake, or I did, she was talking about Mark in the present tense, something about "he's working on it?" he was hurt he couldn't save her? I don't know." Arizona looked steadily, letting Callie know she heard her words.

Callie continued, "Travis, Travis was looking for his legs. He was in a wheelchair, a squeaky one, going around and around the hallway on the 4th floor. He said he died in 2022. Has he been looking for his legs all these years?" Callie questioned.

"Well, the time thing works a little different here, but basically, if you helped him then both of you needed to resolve something before you could complete. Arizona let her know. Arizona normalized Callie's first day in the afterlife. "After leaving Lexi, I woke up guess where… in the NICU. Some of my tiny humans needed me to help them find their way home, so I did."

"In the OR, I had to face the part of me that never let you go" Callie admitted sadly, her head down. "I moved forward but never got over your death right?" Callie asked worriedly. It was dawning on her that she might have been a better mother, etc if she had. She should have made herself.

"You did great Callie, I was able to watch, check in sometimes. You were a terrific mom, our family turned out fine and, you know if you hadn't been I would have come back and kicked your ass for screwing up mt kids!" Both women tossed their heads back as they laughed. The truth is, Callie actually believed her!

"But seriously" Callie continued. I'm staring to get that if I'm stuck, I'm making it hard on other's too." She hesitated "Was Travis stuck because I was stuck too? Was he wheeling himself around and around those halls for years?" Callie was choking up. "Because of me? Did I, I mean were you stuck because I didn't let go of you?" tears streamed down Callie's face.

"Hold on" Arizona put her hand up. "First of all, it's not about when you get unstuck, it's about if you do or don't. Ok? If Travis was stuck then he was part of it too."

Callie couldn't quite understand but knew Arizona would take care of things until she was up to speed. The fog lifted and Callie saw a familiar site, a blue door with the number 502. "Hey, our old place!" she said excitedly.

Yeah, I've been staying here. I figured when you came up you'd come through the hospital. I wanted to feel like I was close to you.

**Chapter 10**

Callie walked into the first place she ever owned. Her condo across from Seattle-Grace, scanning the open floor plan, " You painted the wall" She noticed immediately.

"I know you never liked the lighter color I picked out" Arizona said.

Callie gravitated to the console table to the right of the door, "Hey here's our first selfie, from the pier" Callie smiled looking to Arizona back to her hands, running her fingers around the frame, then across the faces of the two women in it.

Arizona took a seat in the living room but was aching in every sense of the word, her body in overdrive, longing to consume the wife she had been forced to leave, so many years ago. She wanted all of her, naked, in her hands, in her mouth, writhing beneath her! She breathed in to calm herself. She had to follow Callie's lead, for now. Knowing she had been watching Callie all this time but Callie had a lived many years without her.

Callie walked slowly around the room, memories flooding back. Looking at their sofas where they and so many of their friends spent time together. In the kitchen, opening the refrigerator, grasping the handle of her trusty coffee maker, running her palm along the granite breakfast bar they ate at for years. Callie headed across the room. "Hey remember when that storm tanked our long weekend in Tahoe and we spent it here?" Callie stood motioning towards the wood floor in front of the fireplace.

"You were pissed when our flight got canceled, I remember that!" Arizona teased as she sauntered over.

Callie laughed. "And you sent me across the city in rush hour traffic on a bogus errand"

"Hey it wasn't bogus, I needed doughnuts, you know Doug's has the best ones. Besides, it was worth it when you got back right?" Arizona wrapped her arms around Callie's waist.

A tear formed in the corner of Callie's eye as she remembered. "You made it so romantic, a bed in front of the fireplace, a fire every night, that yummy wine.

"And?..." Arizona whispered in Callie's ear, " I made love to you in the morning when you woke up and again…."

"…at night before we went to sleep" Callie finished their sentence. "Definitely my favorite staycation!" Callie laughed out loud. "By the way, I think that's when I decided you were a keeper."

"Mmmm, I'll have to do that again soon" Arizona flashed her signature smile; it was so good to have Callie back in her arms!  
The women were silent for a few minutes, Callie tentatively moving her hands up and down Arizona's sides, Arizona firmly holding the small of Callie's back with one hand, running her fingers through the long brunette locks with the other.  
Callie's breath hitched, squeezing her eyes shut, tears spilled down her cheeks "I missed you she choked out".

"Me too" Arizona whispered to her. Callie broke down into tears, Arizona pulled her close, placing her head on her shoulder and arching her back so Callie could feel all of her holding her up. Comforting her in the first place they shared their lives together. Callie cried forcefully.

Arizona remembered a similar event with her brother Timothy shortly after her own arrival here and lead Callie to the sofa to comfort her.

**Chapter 11**

"Well, that was ugly" Callie said opening her eyes later, tissues strewn across the coffee table in front of her. Arizona lay behind Callie, one arm secure around her waist, the other underneath the pillow supporting Callie's head, the big spoon to Callie's little spoon position.

"Not possible, you're too beautiful," Arizona corrected.

Her tenderness made Callie smile. Callie could feel Arizona wanted her. Curious, for so many years, she lived on her memories of their life together, their passion. Callie wondered why she felt nervous, unsure, why she didn't just whip Arizona's sweater off. _I've never been shy_ she reminded herself. "I'm hungry and could really use a glass of wine. Do we have food here?" realizing she hadn't eaten all day.

Arizona considered mentioning that you no longer need to eat in heaven but decided against it. Her brother had being extremely accommodating with her on this issue.

"Yep, I can order pizza or we have the green Thai curry with chicken you like." Arizona pulled herself up.

Callie grunted, signaling her desire for tasty food, "green curry".

Callie turned on her back and held Arizona's waist as she was climbing over. Arizona hesitated, then adjusted herself so she was straddling Callie, leaning back to rest on her thighs.

"Hi" Arizona said playfully.

"Hi yourself" Callie arched an eyebrow. She meant to make her tone sexy but it came out more sweet instead. Callie dropped her hands a few inches. She could tell Arizona's thighs were tense, not bearing her full weight on Callie. She squeezed her hands signaling Arizona to relax her thighs and pulled her further up.

Arizona followed Callie's cue, watching her face carefully.

"Mmm, I haven't had you here in a while" Callie sounded more sexy this time but not up to her usual par.

Arizona leaned forward, placing her hands on either side of Callie's shoulders; she lowered herself slowly over the other woman, lightly brushing her lips, taking the time to gaze into her eyes, deeply . "I'm getting your dinner...hold that thought" she winked and headed for the kitchen. Returning moments later, with the spicy dish and two glasses of wine, Callie sat up. They spent the next hour talking. Callie scoured the room, picking out mementos, remembering the stories behind them.

Arizona kept the conversation light and open, her only desire to be available for her long lost wife to reconnect with her.

After finishing her second serving, Callie set her plate on the coffee table, leaned back dropping her hand on her stomach and resting her head on the back of the sofa. "That was good".

"More wine?" Arizona offered the bottle.

Callie turned to look at her wife, "I think I'm good"

Arizona returned the bottle to its resting place.

Callie reached over taking Arizona's hand, pulling her body closer.

Arizona tried to figure out what Callie wanted, climbing on her lap, placing her knees on either side of Callie's hips, arms around her neck. Searching her eyes "like this?"

Callie half smiled, nodding her head. Reaching her hands around to the small of Arizona's back, "Just like that".

Like every couple, they had their differences, things that required compromises, some major ones but sex had never been one of them. In that they were extremely well matched. Both quick to heat up and highly responsive to each other. Over time they mostly kept that part of their marriage to themselves. They noticed so many of their friends reported waning sex drives and all out stoppages in some cases as the kids came along and they went about life's busywork. Did they have less sex after they became parents, yes but nothing like the drop-offs their couple friends reported. At first Callie thought they just tried harder, made it a priority but after the first 10 years together, she grew to understand they got lucky too, really lucky.

"Let me just hold you tonight, you've had a long day" Arizona said, a finger tracing the curve of Callie's cheek

"Really" Callie paused for effect, "you wore that sweater to hold me?" commenting on the low reaching blue V-neck. Callie traced the neckline facing her.

"Lingerie seemed like too much pressure, this outfit can go either way. I thought I'd give you a break on our second first date" Arizona teased arching her eyebrows in a flirty gesture that made Callie feel warm all over.

Callie abruptly noticed her own clothes, "Hey, when did we change out of our scrubs?"

"Umm, on the way here from the hospital. I wanted to see you in that leather jacket." Arizona said. "It just kind of happens".

"Just happens..." Callie rested her head back again, cocking an eyebrow, thinking she may not be getting the whole story. Callie took in the woman before her for a few minutes, rubbing her hands along Arizona's curves, she could reach everything. Gently kissing her exposed skin, brown eyes looking into blue. "I'm hot but a little nervous; I mean we did this for decades".

Arizona placed a finger gently on Callie's lips, circling the outer edges then parting them slightly. Leaning in, Arizona used her teeth and tongue to gently envelop and tug at Callie's upper lip, then the lower one. Tracing a line with kisses, she moved across her cheek around to her hear. "Remember the first time I took care of in your bedroom?" she whispered, "Let me do that again".

Callie's heart melted in her chest, her nerves dissipating quickly. She was home again.

**Chapter 12**

The next day, Callie made breakfast as the two women discussed their transitions. "That's the second cryptic remark you've made about Mark, Arizona" she stopped and turned to face her wife. "Is he ok? He ended up here right?" worry creeping into her voice.

"Everyone ends up here Callie, he's safe, I go to see him. Lexi does, others too" Arizona addressed her wife directly. "It's...complicated, I'll take you next...week, when you've been here longer."

Callie felt her irritation rising quickly. "What? Why then?"

Arizona understood they would be going to see Mark before she thought Callie was ready, as was her wife's way. "He's here, he's safe. You had a few things to tie up on your way to me. Some have a lot, some a little and some get...stuck kind of". She considered relaying her own journey but then thought better of it.

"Lexi said Mark thought he should have been able to save her." Callie charged back. "He couldn't so he tried to live for you, to get you back to me and Sophia".

"Right, and he did." Arizona attempted to stabilize her partner's escalating concern. "When he made it back, he tried to live for Sophia." _And he wasn't meant to_, the unspoken part of the truth her wife was simply not ready to hear.

Callie forged ahead "You said you checked in on us. He must have been there for us too."

Arizona considered her words carefully, "He's here, we can see him. But...he... doesn't realize he's here."

"Where? I want to go see him now" Callie declared forcefully.

Arizona could feel Callie's desire filling the room, if she didn't take her, Callie may will herself there un-escorted. On the other hand, Arizona was well acquainted with the basic rule of heaven, no accidents. If Callie had the power, she needed something there. Arizona took her hand "I'll take you, let's go" Walking out the door, fog rolled around them again. They walked for some time, glimpses of their old neighborhood peeking through here and there.

"If you die in Miami, is it still this foggy? Callie joked to break the silence.

"Good Question. I left from Seattle so I don't really know. Let's ask you parents when we see them." Arizona replied thoughtfully.

"Where are we going anyway? Back to the hospital?" Callie asked.

Arizona took a deep breath, circling around in front of Callie, placing her hands on the brunette's waist, holding her firm. "We're going to the crash site, he's still there."

Callie took this in. "But he made it back, you all did except Lexi" trying to reconcile this place and its rules.

Arizona gave her a moment.

"Wait, emotionally he never left there...right?" she tilted her head slightly lifting a knowing eyebrow.

"Right" Arizona said quietly. Giving her wife a final out, "Callie, when we get there, you're going to see some of it, the crash I mean. It wasn't pretty. We don't have to go right now. Mark is safe. I can even go check on him if you want."

Callie felt her anger building quickly, frustration swirled through her chest. "I lost my best friend and almost lost you!" Callie turned and yelled at point blank range. Stepping back pointing a finger in Arizona's face, "The night after you slept with Lauren, you screamed at me. That I wasn't there, I wasn't in the crash and that I had no right to be hurt, or some crap like that! You stuck me with a problem I couldn't solve!" A tear escaping, arms crossing her chest. "You know what, you were right, I wasn't there. But I sure as hell got stuck with the aftermath so screw it! I want to go. Right now!

Arizona knew now at least one of her reasons for being with Callie today, she needed to witness leftover hurt she forced Callie to carry all those years.

A gale force wind suddenly blew the fog bank in front of them away. Callie felt Arizona's arms secure around her waist. "Stay close" echoed in her ear, as the torrent lifted them violently from the streets of Seattle.

**Chapter 13**

Callie heard a screeching pitch all around her, she was falling. Her eyes bolted open, she was in a plane. _Yes a plane_, she stared down at her seatbelt. Voices rose around her, chaotic, yelling. Callie looked up. Meredith was stumbling _uphill_ towards the back of the plane, Derek grabbing after her, trying pull her back. Lexi's eyes were bugging out of her head. Callie instinctively reached for the arm of the woman next to her. Lexi turned her head, mouth open in terror but no sound coming out, a silent scream. Callie felt sudden impact, heard metal twisting, an explosion. Heaving in a painful breath, everything went black.

Opening her eyes a second time, she was standing in the woods, Arizona's arms wrapped tightly around her. Looking to her right, Mark was supine on the ground near a jagged edged portion of the fuselage. Someone was screaming in the background. A cacophony of voices in every direction, but one high pitched scream in particular was so piercing; it was hard for Callie to see straight.

Christina Yang ran past them, hunching her shoulder. _Dislocation, a bad one_, Callie diagnosed in her head then put her hands over her ears in an attempt to block the unending blood curdling scream. "Why is Meredith screaming so loud?!" she yelled angrily at Arizona, "She didn't even break a pinky. I can't think! Mark needs help!"

Arizona placed her hands on Callie's, both of them covering her ears. Everything stopped, complete silence ensued. "That's not Meredith" Arizona mouthed the words in slow motion. "Callie…it's me"

The sounds of the scene came crashing back into Callie's consciousness. Voices, someone calling for Derek, Lexi, another explosion. From the corner of her eye, Callie saw Mark set Christina' shoulder. Then, the high pitched scream, only the scream was in her mind. Callie stumbled back, eyes filling with horror and anguish. Even with Arizona standing in front of her she turned abruptly to run in the direction the death knell.

Arizona took a stand, "No Callie, No" using her body to block her wife's forward momentum.

"You're dying!" A terrified tone in her voice, pupils dilated in urgency. Callie pushed harder forward.

"Callie! Stop! You weren't meant to see that!" _at least not yet_ she finished the sentence in her mind only, understanding another piece of her puzzle.

Callie spun back, reeling from the reality surrounding her.

Arizona wrapped her entire self around her wife, tighter than humanly possible. "Callie, take us home. Think of us back in the condo, right now" she said calmly but forcefully in her ear.

Callie squeezed her eyelids tightly an attempt to concentrate as hard as she could. Once Callie started her release, Arizona was able to will them the rest of the way.

Callie was out of breath, looking traumatized as they stood in the hallway outside of the blue door. "Holy crap..." She grabbed Arizona, hands grasping desperately all over the blonde's body and face, making sure she was real, here, safe.

"I made it Callie, we were married for over 30 years, had 3 kids, we made it." Arizona pressed her whole body against Callie pressing her back against the wall. Slowly, her wife's breathing returned to normal and she loosened her grip.

Walking in the door, Callie went straight for the kitchen, a bottle of wine appeared and she poured a glass, gulping half of it down before refilling and returning to the sofa, dropping down next to her wife. "Oh my God" sinking her face into her hands. "That's the worst thing I've ever seen. Lexi's eyes...How long were you screaming like that?

"I don't know, someone told me to shut the hell up, I can't be sure but I think it was Yang. I was in shock; there was a lot of confusion. Look, give yourself a few…days to adjust. It will be easier for you to go there, less visceral."

"I..." Callie started to resist but realized she didn't have it in her.

"Mark is fine, cross my heart". Arizona said firmly but sweetly, trying to infuse calm to the air around them.

"You know, I may never get your scream out of my head" Callie told a wry truth.

"Well, most of us didn't so join the club" Arizona said plainly. "Sometimes I think one of my jobs was to sound the alarm or something" she added sheepishly. So far I'm batting a thousand. Everyone who's come up from the crash so far hears that.

Callie wrapped arms around her. Kissing the side of her head, her neck. "I had no idea" she whispered

"I know" Arizona comforted her.

Callie was feeling everything, horrified, relived, grateful, worried about Mark and strangely at peace back in their condo. She lay on the sofa signaling Arizona to stretch out in front of her. Spooning her, Callie collapsed into her emotional exhaustion and quickly fell asleep. Vowing to stay within arm's reach of Arizona and avoid traveling, at least in the near future.

**Chapter 14**

Several days later, Callie stirred slowly. She was face down in her pillow. A small drool spot at the corner of her mouth. Turing over, she found she was alone in the bed. She reached across to the spot occupied by her wife the night? day? before. _How long have I been here anyway?_ she thought to herself. Going back through the events, she guessed about a week. She knew she'd seen the sun rise and set at least three times during her and Arizona's eat, sex, sleep marathon. She didn't recall ever staying in having sex this many times in a row but after the shock of visiting Mark's crash scene, she recovered the way she sometimes recovered from the trauma of losing a patient, a need for urgent unlimited contact and connectedness with her wife.

Callie took a few minutes to look around the room. This was her old condo all right, her dresser, headboard...accept it was the first one they had. After Arizona recovered from her amputation, she wanted a bed with a footboard so she had more leverage with the one leg. Callie remembered the scene, as if it was yesterday and not a lifetime ago. Arizona had been nervous to ask, even stuttered. Initially Callie withheld her answer. The level of nervousness Arizona was displaying made Callie worry a much bigger question was coming. When it didn't, "A bed with a footboard? Sure, let's go shopping this weekend." Callie spouted out, relived. The curtains were familiar, she remembered buying them when she moved in. The flowered sheets were from Arizona's place. The carpet, the walls, it was the same. But, she had died, was in some version of an afterlife and realized everything was different too.

Suddenly, an unsettling feeling washed over Callie, staying mostly in her chest. She had been in bed for heaven knows how long, not that she was complaining. Arizona too had been insatiable and Callie was delighted to be at her service. Both of them intent on making up for lost time. She decided to get up, maybe coffee and fresh air would help. "Morning" she said, spying Arizona on the sofa, looking out the window. "If you want to go again I'm in, just let me get some coffee first".

"You are?..mmmm" Arizona smiled, turning from the window to look back across the room. A delightful offer indeed but she already knew things were about to change.

"So far, this is my favorite part of heaven by the way" Callie smirked as she walked towards the sofa. The wave washed over her again and she instinctively put her hand to her heart. "I'm having a weird feeling today. By the way how long have I been here?"

I'm feeling that too" Arizona steadied her eyes at Callie.

Callie stopped mid-sip, realizing Arizona's tone had changed. "What is it?"

"Sit with me" Arizona suggested, figuring out where to start. "The time thing works differently up here." She explained. Remember when I told you how I checked in on you and the kids from time to time. Kind of like looking at a TV?"

"Yeah...oh my god, the kids, how are they? How could I forget about them? I died, their mother. I've been here for like a week! What kind of mother...". Callie stammered.

"Hold on" Arizona raised a hand to slow her wife's roll. "You didn't forget them Callie. In fact we are going to see them soon. Check in on them soon I mean. That feeling you're having in your chest, I got it too when I first came up. You'll start feeling it when someone who loved you on earth is thinking about you. I think of it as a kind of a remote. When I'd get the feeling, I'd tune in. It was a little hazy at first, but I got used to it. Now I know who's thinking about me, even without turning on the proverbial tv." She watched Callie take this in before continuing. "The time thing, you see, for them, only a second has passed. Arizona searched Callie's face again.

Callie drank more coffee, pondering her wife's explanation. All this was new and so far Arizona had been right on and very supportive, even when Callie's headstrong tendencies landed her in places she wasn't ready for. "Umm, I'll just stick with you for now" she stated as a matter of fact. She worried about her kids though, their kids hurting but was surprised at how calm she was taking in this information. "OK...when?"

"You'll know when it's time, you'll feel the tug in your heart, we both will." Arizona smiled sweetly, squeezing Callie's leg in a comforting gesture. "Right now, you're going to get a refill on your coffee and I'm going to rub your feet, you still like that right?"

Callie did love foot rubs, another thing she had given up when Arizona died. Maybe because surgeons stood for hours on end? Who cares, she just knew the sweet release she felt, Arizona's thumbs digging into her arches. Their conversation was relaxed and free-flowing. Callie asked more questions about exactly what happened in the hospital, the crash, what it all meant. Arizona answered honestly, sometimes relating an example from her own experience. By the end of her second cup of coffee, Callie felt extremely...settled, peaceful really. Looking around their condo, Callie felt comforted by the familiarity but sensed she wouldn't need it much longer. She had Arizona back so whatever needed to happen, they would handle together, they always did. _I'm ready now_ she knew and became aware of her heart again.

"It's time Callie" Arizona announced. "Hold my hands".

**Chapter 15**

A moment later, Callie was back in the bedroom, the one in the house she and Arizona shared for most of their lives, her earth body below her in the bed. She squeezed Arizona's hand for dear life, then realized they weren't falling, more like hovering, above the scene. Sophia was leaning over her former self holding her hand, Timothy Jr. and Carlos kneeling on the bed. One holding her hand, Timothy Jr. pressing her shoulder.

"Mama?" he questioned.

Callie looked around the room, Aunt Bailey, Uncle Alex and Aunt Jo, Sophia and Carlos's husbands, Daniel's wife and the older grandchildren were all there. Callie looked to Arizona for reassurance.

"It's ok" her wife replied quietly.

Timothy Jr. grabbed the sides of his head dropping it forward, his chest heaving, tears streaming. "Mama, no!" he choked on his grief. Carmen jumped on the bed behind him, wrapping his waist tightly in her strong, brown arms. Callie recognized the moves and mannerisms of the couple below. That could have been her holding Arizona. She flashed back in time to when Arizona's father passed away. They were in a hospital and Arizona was standing but the move was the same. Sophia was the next to go. She collapsed on her mother's body, Carlos reached across to comfort his sister. And so it went around the room. A few minutes later, Bailey, Jo and Alex moved forward, forming a circle around their younger charges. Callie noticed she was at the scene but not of it. Seeing her children weeping used to cut her in half. She turned again to the blonde floating next to her with a questioning look.

"Their doing exactly the right thing Callie" Arizona confirmed.

"Can we help?" Callie searched her wife's face.

"We are", Arizona said pointing to Callie's chest.

Callie looked down. She saw a faint light or a mist maybe emanating from her chest, and then suddenly noticed she was wearing her old bathrobe. _God this thing is faded and frayed_ she thought._Yikes_. Turning back to Arizona "Hey how come you are in a hot motorcycle jacket and boots and I'm dressed like this!?

Arizona laughed, "It's just how the kids remember you."

"So they remember you as hot and me... I look like my Abuella Marina. The last few years of her life, she wore her tattered blue bathrobe everywhere, even outside in the neighborhood to come find us kids! It was embarrassing!" Callie protested.

"Callie, you did wear that for a long time. It's comforting to them. Carlos is just remembering me when I went with him to the motorcycle safety riding course, when he was 18. I was the only mom who showed up to take the class. At first he was embarrassed but that weekend became one of his fondest memories. In his mind, it bonded us as adults really."

"Mmh" Callie smirked, returning to the scene below and the now brighter mist emanating from her.

"We're sending love through to them right now, that's our job. When I died, I did the same, stayed with you, the kids, went to everyone who needed me. Callie contemplated this and decided it sounded an awful lot like being on-call at the hospital. "When their grieving, they won't be able to feel you, but there will be moments. Each of them will be different" Arizona explained.

The scene below played out like a movie. Callie loosened her death grip on Arizona, opting instead for threading her finger's through her wife's. One by one family and friends saying their final goodbyes as her earth self lay quietly in her bed. Callie was curious though. Her family below was in great pain, why wasn't she? Callie turned to Arizona, "How will we stay with everyone?"

"Oh, I can show you that", the scene below split in two, then more. The living room, bedroom, kitchen as Carmen and Jo sat at the table then the back yard where Sophia, followed by Bailey, walked out on the porch.

"The Robbins-Torres channel" Callie said slowly, I get it now.

Carlos, Karev and Timothy Jr. were at the bedroom door. "Go check on your sister" Karev nodded, knowing what the younger men needed right now. They nodded back in unison. "I'll be right here" he assured them. Leaving the door open, Alex returned to Callie's bedside. Pulling a nearby chair he sat watch over his dear friend, knowing that's what Arizona would have wanted.

Callie remembered Karev never left Arizona's side after she died. Although no longer at Grey+Sloan Memorial, he flew in from the east coast as soon as he heard Arizona was hurt. He waited in the OR after her death for the Morgue team and walked with her to the room where she was covered and placed so her family could say their goodbyes, then to the cold room in the basement of the hospital. On a small screen below, Callie witnessed events she hadn't known of. In the morgue, Karev refused to let Monica zip the black body bag over Arizona's face. Then held up a hand blocking an attempt to put her in the refrigeration tube. "Dr. Karev" James, the other morgue attendant started.

"We're fine here" Alex starred them down. "Call the funeral home and tell them to get their asses in gear, she's not staying here overnight" he barked. Monica saw the determination and hurt in his eyes. She gently pushed the stretcher carrying the former Chief of Pediatric Surgery's body next to the adjacent wall and rolled a nearby stool to the man standing guard. Alex unzipped the body bag half way and reaching his arm across her waist, secured his former mentor until the driver from the funeral home arrived and they wheeled her out. Alex climbed in the back of the hearse as the attendants rolled the stretcher in and secured it.

"Sir, only funeral home employees are allowed to ride in the hearse and no one can sit in the back with the... with her. Insurance reasons". Alex's glare assured the driver his statement must be a joke.

A smile spread across Callie's face. Alex had calmed quite a bit in his later years but she was comforted knowing the old Alex was lurking under the surface, ready when needed.

After a brief stand-off the driver relented "Why don't you ride up front with me, there's a window, you can keep an eye on her." Alex never left her side, oversaw the embalming process and his hands held Arizona's head as she was placed in the coffin that would be her final resting place.

Looking over at Arizona, Callie knew he would do the same for her and remembered when her friendship with Alex really began.

**Chapter 16**

Karev loved Arizona. The feeling was mutual. Mother isn't exactly the right word, Arizona was more like a bad ass sister buddy who knew how to color inside the lines. In the few conversations they ever had about it, Arizona informed Callie, "I'm not trying to change him. The edge is Karev. I'm just providing an opportunity for the edge to be penetrable so he can have the life he really wants".

Karev thought becoming a doctor would save him, cover over the past he was so desperately running from. In truth, Arizona Robbins saved his life. She was the reason he was able to become the man he always feared he wasn't good enough to be. Alex found his emotional home as Arizona's wing man, a home he was happy to stay in for the rest of his career but Arizona had other plans.

Seven years after the plane crash; the plane Alex was supposed to be on, the crash that lead to Arizona losing her leg, Callie sat in her wife's office pretending to read a medical journal listening to Arizona make the most difficult phone call of her professional life. "Yes Jerry, He's your guy. Call him and make the offer". She hung up the phone, ending the call with her mentor and Chief of Pediatric Surgery at John's Hopkins. Looking to Callie, "If any of your residents look good for Peds, put them on my service ok? I'll need to groom a new attending".

A week later, Karev was toasting at Joe's bar for his goodbye party. Drinking into the night, he and Arizona both ended up sleeping on the L-shaped sofa in Arizona and Callie's living room.

"Alex!" Callie heard Arizona call the next morning as he was leaving. "Jerry is going to retire sometime. You have that long to earn the respect of the Board and the other attendings. You earn their respect, but the goal is for them to report to you. I'm only letting you go because you're the next department head of Peds Surgery at Hopkins!"

Alex paused on the sidewalk, halfway between his mentor and the waiting taxi..."Arizona, I…" he had so much to say, so much had gone unsaid.

He didn't have the words and Arizona would have none of it. "Get to the east coast and DON'T screw this up Karev. You really, really don't want me coming three thousand miles to kick your ass."

Alex grinned and headed towards his future. Arizona knew Alex wanted this but was scared out of his mind. Kicking his ass was the best way to get him on the plane. Two months later, Arizona would be in Baltimore for a medial conference but mostly to check up on her boy. At that point, she planned to start shifting their relationship, treating Alex as her equal. They would move forward together. Arizona doing what she always did. Hold his footing for him until he realized he deserved to be there.

When she left Baltimore the first time, she asked Alex if she could scrub in with him on a couple of high profile surgeries over the next few years. "No matter how good you get Karev, I'll still be checking up on you" she communicated her confidence and support in Alex speak. She had an ulterior motive. Her name was well known in the upper echelon of Peds surgery and her ascension to Chief of Peds Surgery at a top hospital at a ridiculously young age was legendary. Her arrival for a special surgery would be much anticipated. When Alex called her about a complicated, risky procedure that had only been tried twice, she was on the red-eye to Baltimore Washington International Airport. Instead of showing up in teaching mode as everyone expected, she scrubbed in as first assist. Standing tall next to Alex she established herself in the OR while carefully deferring to him. Signaling to the surgical team and more importantly the big wigs in the viewing suite that she regarded him as her equal. This happened again a year later, only then did Alex catch on.

Alex grabbed her arm, as she was getting out of his car at the airport "I get it now boss, thanks for making me look good".

"You're my guy Alex, it's my job to make sure you do well" reiterating her long held mentoring philosophy. Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she leaned back in the passenger window. "And honestly Alex, you've earned it, so own it". Arizona flashed her signature smile, Alex lifted his chin and eyebrows, their long practiced version of a fist pump.

On her final visit, his third year at Hopkins, she noticed a big difference. He was calmer, looked almost stately in his glasses. He'd come into his own there. After that he contacted her less and less. Texts became their main mode of communication over the next few years and mostly not work stuff. She followed him through professional journals though.

"Hey have you heard from Alex?" Callie asked innocently one morning thinking Arizona hadn't mentioned him in many months.

"Naw, he's on his own now" Arizona attempted to dismiss.

Callie knew what a sacrifice it had been for Arizona to give Karev his walking papers. Callie wasn't sure she knew exactly what tied them so tightly together, only that the bond was there, palpable at times. He had a lot of confrontational qualities that Callie liked but going up against a brick wall gets tiring so eventually she defaulted respecting him for his skills and supporting him because he was important to Arizona. Callie thought for a minute, "He'll call. He wants you to be proud of him, so he'll call when he has something to show you."

A few months later, Karev sent a semi cryptic text saying he was coming to Seattle. Arizona reread the message several times before responding. "Stay with us?"

Later that night , "Sounds good. Flying in on thurs. Catch up with you at the hospital?"

"Excellent," Arizona replied.

Callie could tell Arizona was excited and nervous. She started several conversations to discuss possible motives for his trip. Were they offering him Chief? She was pretty sure Jerry would have called her. She hadn't heard about any botched surgeries or major malpractice suits. Did he want to come back west?

"Call Jerry and ask" Callie suggested her third time through this conversation in two days.

Arizona took a pondering breath. "No, he's a big boy now. I'll wait for him to tell me" she decided.

**Chapter 17**

Arizona had been on edge all day, her head snapped up when she heard her office door open, Alex was back.

"New couch I see, is it comfortable?" he gestured across the room, referring to the memory of the first time Arizona caught him sleeping in her office.

All those years ago…..

"Karev, what the! This is my office, sleep in an on-call room!" Arizona shouted at the stocky resident splayed across her sofa.

"That's not what you do in the on-call rooms", he spat back balling up a blanket and storming out.

The following week, she caught him again but stopped herself before hitting the ceiling. Watching him sleep, it came to her. He looked 10 years old. He wasn't sleeping here out of spite or laziness, he felt safe here. Arizona decided to go with it. He wasn't snoring so she could get her work done. An hour later both their pagers went off and he awoke with a groan. Arizona laughed to herself as that is exactly how Callie sounded when woken by her pager. Karev bolted to his feet.

"4303, It's Wallace, let's go" Arizona commanded.

Heading quickly for her office door, Alex attempted to apologize for getting caught again.

Arizona raised her hand indicating he should stop talking. "Looks like you aren't going to listen to me on this one Karev so I guess I'll just be getting used to it!" This was of course Alex speak for I see what you need and I'm going to give it to you. She stopped at the door, spinning on her heel, Alex almost colliding into her. "Sleeping only, got it!?" she lectured sternly.

"Got it" he nodded in agreement, secretly relieved he would be able to stay. Something about that couch was more comfortable than the on call room.

Back in the now, Alex looked around, he was happy to be back in her office after all these years. Arizona had a way of letting him be. She figured out what he needed, gave it to him but didn't make him talk about it. In his words she was un-chick like in that manner and he drank it in.

Karev's face turned serious. Arizona reflexively stood up from her desk and stepped towards him. His face changed again. He started to smile then looked like he might tear up. She couldn't take it any longer "Alex, what's happening?"

"They ah, he choked out, took a deep breath and started to smile again. "They offered me the Chief of Peds Surgery at Hopkins, Jerry is retiring in 6 months!"

Arizona exhaled her relief then started towards Karev. "Freaking A Karev, you are a rock star!" she was shouting by the time she got to him, smacking him hard on the chest, emotions still cycling across his face.

"Hey, this is a good thing right?" she exclaimed holding her palms up for a double high-5.

"Yeah, I just...Alex started laughing. "It's just...me." he choked out holding in his emotions, "freaking Alex trash can Karev. Arizona, I'm going to have my own department!"

Arizona recognized a familiar state. He was careening around in the space between who he had been and who he was going to be. His former self in disbelief, never imagining he would go this far. His current self, trying not to let the past catch up. Arizona was running through her own set of emotions. All of the sudden, he grabbed Arizona's shoulders "We did it boss, we did it" He said excitedly.

Arizona reached back towards him, her shorter arms only letting her hands get as far as his biceps, "You did it Karev. I showed you the chair, but you chose to sit in it! You did it!" She exclaimed.

Callie had heard Alex was back and headed to find Arizona knowing that's where he'd be. She heard yelling in Arizona's office and opened the door just in time to see Alex Karev swoop her wife up by the waist and spin around yelling "We did it, I did it!" On one of his spins, he saw Callie. He put Arizona down fast and stepped quickly towards her. "Callie, Hopkins, they offered me the department" he shouted as he lifted Callie by her waist and proceeded to spin around too.

Callie couldn't recall the last time she'd been picked up but Alex's excitement was palpable. She was watching him realize something beyond his dreams. "Oh my god, Oh my God, that's great!" she congratulated him as her feet hit the floor.

In a burst Arizona was airborne again, Alex jumping up and down. "I made it!" He called skyward.

Arizona wrapped her legs around his waist for safety sake raising her arms in victory "You Rooooooooock!"

When Arizona was earthbound again, Karev wrapped a beefy arm around each of the women's necks, pulling them in. "Let's go to Joe's, I'm buying!"

Arizona looked at the clock; she was off shift in ten minutes.

Callie sensed she was about to remind Alex they had 3 kids at home, although for a few minutes, it did seem like they were all young again. "Why don't you guys go ahead, I have a few things to finish up. I'll call the babysitter and join you in a little while".

"No, we'll wait" said Arizona, remembering her parental responsibilities. "I'll call..."

"No, no, go" Callie waived her hand in the air as she headed for the office door. "You guys get over there and start celebrating". She turned back towards them "Congratulations Alex. Order me a scotch ok?"

Arizona mouthed "thank you" to her wife knowing a babysitter on short notice would be a challenge. Callie smiled back. She had been the unintentional third wheel in this friendship for years but decided a long time ago to just make it work for Arizona.

**Chapter 18**

Alex and Arizona took a table in the corner, three drinks arrived. As they toasted, "Ok", Arizona prompted, "tell me everything and don't skip over the details! Start from when you first realized you might be asked to be Chief"

Thirty minutes later, Callie waked into Joe's, spying Karev and Arizona, completely engrossed in conversation. Karev was more animated than she had ever seen him, talking with his hands. Arizona looked like a proud mama or devoted friend depending on what part of the story he was telling. Callie cocked an eyebrow as she noticed Arizona hadn't changed out of her scrubs. Everybody knew that at least half the customers at any given time were hospital staff but it probably wasn't a good idea to be here in uniform.

"Torres, are you coming in or not?" Joe's familiar voice sounded next to her.  
She turned to him, then looked back across to the corner table.

Joe looked in the same direction. "Is that Karev with Arizona?" he asked "He looks different.."

"Yeah" Callie said slowly, "he's back for a visit".

"So are you staying?" Joe asked again

"No I'm just going to drop something off with Arizona. I'm taking the car so make sure they get a cab back to our place later?" she asked.

"You got it" Joe assured her.

Callie unzipped her leather jacket, sliding it off her shoulders and arms as she strode across the room. "Hey" she said approaching the table.

"Hey Callie" Arizona patted the seat next to her. "We got your drink. Ok, Alex, brief re-cap".

"Oh you know what, I need to get home." Callie interjected. Arizona's face fell, she was having fun and wanted Callie to be there.

"Ok, yeah, let's all go, we can continue this at the house". Arizona said.

Alex looked back and forth between the two. He was fine with going. The cross country flight had given him time to think. He realized although Callie had been with Arizona since he'd known her, he hadn't really spent much time getting to know Callie. He wanted to change that. He hadn't told Arizona yet but he ran into Jo at a surgery conference a few months before. Their dating from a decade before had been a disaster but were older now. From his own upbringing, he didn't know what a good marriage looked like. His former boss's seemed as good as any so he planned on bringing up the subject with both of them.

"No, you guys stay. Just grab a cab home later. Oh, wear this Arizona" Callie held the jacket for Arizona to put her arm in.

Arizona looked puzzled for a second until she saw what she was wearing."Good idea!" she laughed and put it on. "Thanks, I owe you one"

"I already have something in mind" Callie teased as she turned to head for the door.

"Hey Callie" Alex called, sliding off his stool, covering the distance between them. Callie turned to face him. "Are you around over the weekend? There's something I wanted to talk to you about, you guys I mean."

The saucy brunette felt her eyebrows shoot skyward. Hoping they felt higher than they actually were. "Sure, we're both off"

"Ok great" Alex smiled. Joe was right, he really did look different. More than just an older version of himself. He was calmer? Callie hadn't actually called a babysitter assuming Arizona and Karev would want to be without her. Now she wondered.

"Mom's coming home later" she said in response to a question from Timothy Jr. "Uncle Alex is in town and their having dinner".

"Is he staying with us?" Sophia asked excitedly. She had a crush on Karev since she was a baby.

"Yes but It might be past your bedtime before they get home, you'll see him in the morning" Callie warded off the kid's inevitable follow-up question about staying up late.

The evening proceded with homework and the usual post dinner pre- bed time activities. "Lights out guys" Callie called as she headed to the second floor to make sure there were sheets in the guest bedroom. Thinking Arizona and Karev may be out until all hours, she took a shower and fell asleep in bed watching TV.

Callie awoke to voices downstairs.

"That is so not true!" Arizona made her point.

"Dude, you KNOW I'm right!" Karev set the record straight

They both burst into laughter. Wondering what kind of state Arizona was going to be in, Callie glanced at the clock. Her brow furrowed, _Only 9:30pm?_ She heard Arizona walk Alex into the guest bedroom. A few minutes later she opened their bedroom door quietly, peeking over to see if Callie was asleep.

"Did I wake you?" Arizona whispered.

"No, just dozing" Callie replied

Arizona walked over to Callie's side of the bed, Callie scooted over so she had room to sit. Arizona winced a little when she sat down, her residual limb was hurting.

Arizona turned her head sideways to Callie. "He did it", tears in her eyes. Callie sat up wrapping her arms around her wife. Arizona leaned into Callie, crying softly, tears of relief. "He did it," she repeated, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Well, you know I'm not surprised" Callie said pursing her lips and cocking her head, "You taught him everything he knows" she smirked.

Arizona laughed, reaching back to hug Callie tight. "Well, I was worried there for a while. Thought he might be crashing and burning" Arizona admitted. "all he would ask me about was you and the kids" turning her vulnerable eyes to her wife.

Callie pulled her in closer, kissing the side of her head, "You did a good thing" she whispered.

"He had a perfectly respectable career and life here, working with me. He was set. I pushed him further. It was the right decision as long as everything worked out but if it didn't..." tears streamed again.

Callie was uncomfortable realizing something this heavy had been weighing on Arizona and she wasn't aware of it. She engaged immediately, "Tell me everything! When did he know? Has Jerry been mentoring him?"

After beaming about her protégé for 20 minutes, Arizona finished her story, leaning in for a major kiss and a huge hug of relief.

**Chapter 19**

Breakfast was over and Arizona was corralling the kids in the car to be dropped off at soccer practice. Alex stayed behind doing the dishes.

"Oh Alex, you don't have to do that" Callie said, her fuzzy blue cookie monster slippers leading the way to the coffee maker, "I'll do them later".

"No, I want to," Karev replied. For the second time in less than 24 hours Callie hoped her eyebrows were not as high as they felt. Clearing her throat, she took a large sip of coffee. She couldn't put her finger on it. It's not like Alex hadn't been helpful. He would have done anything for Arizona. He was just so...comfortable. That's what was different. He no longer seemed like a guy that was wound too tight.

Wiping a plate with a soapy sponge, Alex turned to Callie sitting at the kitchen table. "How long have you guys been married?"

"Um" Callie thought for a minute "since the wedding or legally" she smiled meaning for Alex to laugh.

His brow furrowed, "which one is more important?" he asked seriously.

"Well, it's complicated. We think of our anniversary as the date of our wedding. When marriage became legal a few years later, we just went to city hall with the 10,000 other gay couples" she smiled. The legal status was important and made our life easier…." Callie was thinking out loud.

"Mmm" Karev responded.

Callie felt an awkward silence.

"How did you meet Arizona again?" he pursued.

"Well, we met at Joe's actually. She knew who I was before I knew her. It's complicated, See I had just been through a bad break-up with Erica Hahn who I liked but then she said I couldn't be "sort of" a lesbian but I wasn't really sure then Arizona approached me. I was kind of freaked out but then a couple of days later I decided she was too hot to ignore but then she found out I had only been with one woman so she called e a newborn and didn't want to date me. So then..." Callie stopped herself wondering what she was saying. Considering his questions, Arizona may have never talked much about their personal life to him so she backed off.

Callie stood up, she needed a minute to get her bearings.

"If you don't want to talk, that's fine, I just.." Alex put the towel on the counter and abruptly started to leave the room. "I'm going to grab a shower". He didn't seem mad but what just happened? Hearing the shower turn on, she grabbed her cell and walked quickly to the living room.

_Well that didn't go well_ Alex thought to himself. _Somehow she got talking about all this gay shit. Which is fine, whatever. I'll talk to Arizona later. I don't really know Callie anyway._

"Hey there" Arizona said answering the call in the car.

"Um, I need to talk to you for a minute" hearing she was on speaker phone.

"Ok, 20 minutes?" hearing the concern in Callie's voice

"No, that's too long".

"Hang on, Sophia, would you hand me my bluetooth?" Arizona pointed to her purse.

"Mom why don't you want to talk in front of us.? " Timothy Jr. called from the back seat.

"Is it because Timmy ate an extra candy bar last night?" Carlos reported.

"I did not!" Timothy Jr. protested, squishing his face as he looked at his brother.

"Guys, cool it please, I need to talk to mama" Arizona said putting the bluetooth in her ear . "Were good" let Callie know only one side of their conversation would be heard.

"Look, I may have messed up here. I mean I like Alex, and even more now he seems different you know like he's comfortable, being around us" Callie blurted out. Arizona took the curve, squinting in an effort to better sort out what Callie was talking about. Callie continued without taking a breath, "He asked if I thought we were married at our wedding or the second time when it was legal. He asked how we met, I told him about Erica, then meeting you," she paused.

"Anything else?" Arizona asked somewhat sarcastically, thinking she'd only left the house 10 minutes ago and Callie had been upstairs making the bed and Alex was in the kitchen.

"Do you want more details? I mean he's asking me all this gay stuff, legal stuff kind of. I mean I'm fine telling him but then I was thinking if he's asking me this then you guys never talked about it, which seems unlikely but then why is he bringing it up? Do you think he's bi or something? Is that why he's asking?" Callie exhaled.

"To answer your question, no. And please don't go there." Arizona stated firmly. "Right now?" she left the question for Callie to answer.

"Taking a shower" Callie whispered loudly. "Crap! the water just turned off".

Arizona needed to talk but keep the kids off track. The last thing she wanted was one of them mentioning this conversation to their uncle. "Umm ok, it sounds like she has her professional life together but is worried about her personal life. She probably has a new girlfriend that she really, really likes".

After a short pause; "Seriously? How did you get there? Callie stammered in disbelief.

"Look, if it seems right, ask her what's happening. Let her lead the conversation. And Callie, I know you hate this but she's the kind of girl who needs 5 or 10 sentences to get things out sometimes. "

"Ok, Ok" Callie sounded calmer.

"I'll be home in about an hour", a warning tone in her voice implying the second half of the sentence _And my boy better be there._

Alex came down the stairs. Callie was waiting, looking at her phone

"I was going to pick up some steaks to grill for dinner. Walk downtown with me?" Callie looked up hopefully.

"Sure" Alex nodded.

Locking the door behind them Callie started. "I don't mind talking about the stuff you asked about". Alex stepped off the front porch and fell in stride next to her, shoulders hunched over, hands in his pockets. "Did you want to hear about my bi sexual escapades and commitment ceremony vs legal marriage or is something else on your mind?" Callie bumped his shoulder playfully. "I have a lot to say about both subjects if you're interested" Callie teased again lightly trying to get a read.

Alex smiled at the ground. Callie felt an urge, to keep talking, but bit the inside of her cheek instead.

After a minute or two; "How is Bailey doing as Chief of Surgery? Alex started a different conversation.

"Great so far" Callie replied. The two continued downtown to the butcher, Callie filling Alex in on Grey + Sloan gossip.

**Chapter 20**

Later that afternoon, Alex and Arizona were on the back porch drinking a beer, swapping surgery stories, watching the kids run and play in the back yard.

"Steaks are marinating, " Callie said as she closed the glass door behind her. Alex stood up to give Callie his seat next to Arizona. "I'm going to dangle my feet in the pool for a little while. I'll be back" she smiled at both of them. Callie sat so she could see Alex and Arizona but not feel like she was staring at them.

Alex Karev arrived at Seattle Grace, a super bright hot head. Aggressive in public, defensive in private surgical intern with marginal bedside manner raised by a violent, alcoholic parent. _He's come a long way _Callie mused_. Who would have guessed that Arizona Robbins, a 5 ft 5 inch 100 and nothing pound blonde haired blue-eyed beauty, was the one who had the chops to tame him._ Callie laughed to herself. The cool water felt great on her feet and she shifted her gaze from her feet, to her kids to the "A" team. A nickname applied to Arizona and Alex about a year after he decided not to leave Seattle. It was a welcome sign to the rest of the hospital that they were intact after the trauma around Arizona taking Alex's place on the plane that crashed resulting in Alex having to amputate Arizona's leg after. Callie decided to mosey back to the porch.

"I think you're reading it right" Arizona said honestly. "Dealing with people who got passed over for promotion is in our ballpark now. See the interns and residents, they have to give it up. They need us. The attendings, that's a mixed bag, some are competing to move up, some are happy where they are, some don't know what they want. Now that we're Chiefs, some smart ass is always gunning for our job, always thinking they can do it better. And maybe their right, but you know what I always say Karev" Arizona locked her eyes with his and nodded "Over my dead body!" they said in unison, giving each other a high five.

Callie noticed their beers were empty and headed in the house to get a fresh round. Callie was re- learning a lot this weekend, about herself, Arizona and Karev. They had gotten so busy with their kids, their lives. She saw her wife at work every day but realized she hadn't been around her teaching much in years. Arizona had a way about her. She was a decade ahead of Alex Karev as a Chief but at this very moment, she was extending her cape around him in a way that he knew if he saw it in her, he could have it in him. And he would. His first day as Chief was six months away, but his day one would be more like Arizona's year 1. He was her guy, so she never hesitated to let him learn from her mistakes past and present. Callie re-appeared on the porch with fresh beers, and joined them. It was a Chief's talk. Callie added her stories since taking over Ortho.

"I'm going to drop the kids off." Callie announced at 5 o'clock. Sophia was spending the night with her friend Allegra and the boys were staying with Tuck at Bailey's, attending a soccer skills class the following morning.

"Oh, I can do that" Arizona sat up, realizing how much time had passed.

"I can help with something, Alex bolted out of his chair.

"I got it, how about if you have dinner ready?" she asked as a trade.

"Ok" said Arizona.

Callie called the kids in, collected their back packs and directed them to the car.

Arizona looked at Alex, "I'm going to help her for a minute" . Arizona found Callie in the bedroom zipping her hoodie. "Hey" I know Alex and I have been talking all day. Thanks."

"We're good, you took them to practice, packed their overnight bags and will have dinner ready when I get back" Callie smiled.

"You know what I mean," tilting her head slightly. Callie moved Arizona against the wall of their bedroom and pressed her lips gently to her wife's. "You are wonderful," she pressed in again "and I love you," mouth slightly open she pressed in again "and our kids are gone for the night". Her last kiss before going downstairs left Arizona a little breathless. "Do what you need to do with your boy, but once you come to bed tonight, you're mine"

"I have a feeling it will be an early night" Arizona breathed in Callie's ear.

Callie was ready to pull out of the garage after 10 minutes of verifying everyone had what they needed, a seat belt discussion and a trip to the refrigerator to get a dessert Sophia was supposed to take to her party. Callie eyed the key lime pie her daughter carried with suspicion. "When did your mother have time to make this?" Callie recounted the day and made a mental note to ask Arizona.

Alex appeared in the doorway as Callie started the car. "I'll ride along" he said.

"Sophia, in the back with your brothers, Uncle Alex is coming.

"Uncle Alex, are you coming to the party with me? Sophia smiled at him.

"Not this time, just riding with you guys" he boys were dropped off first and then Sophia.

"Callie", Alex broke the silence on their way home. "I know I have things to learn about being chief but I'm good you know. I've been very successful and I realize deserve this promotion" He stated assuredly, then paused. Callie sucked her cheek in between her teeth, remembering what Arizona told her this morning about giving Alex extra sentences to get things out.

"I agree" she said lightly

"You guys, you seem like you figured it out. I mean you're married for like 15 years now right? He continued to ramble "A few months ago we were texting and it was late and she was like I have to get home, my woman's waiting and I'm taking care of her tonight. She's still freaking in love with you. I mean the big A and me, we're ass men and she told me dude, if you're an ass man you're an ass man, so it's important. That's thing's gotta to be there." Alex stopped rambling and took a breath.

_The big A?_ Callie thought, smiling inside. Besides being unbelievably cute coming from him, she was soooo going to use that!

Callie bit her cheek harder.

" Aww, this sucks", he diverted, considering clamming up. "Do you get it because really, this is a problem for me"

Callie thought she might be getting it but couldn't say for sure. They were both thankful when the SUV pulled into the driveway.

**Chapter 21**

Walking into the house, Callie put a firm hand on his shoulder. "I'm glad you came Alex" she said simply. "Can you check out back and see if she needs anything?"

Karev stepped on the back porch, grabbed the first beer he saw and downed half the bottle. Watching, this, Arizona decided she was about to call a halt to Callie and Karev spending any more time alone! What the heck was going on? She was really getting pissed.

Looking back at the foil wrapped corn steaming on the grill, poking at it unnecessarily. "That must have been some car ride" Arizona stated the obvious.

Karev dropped down in the chaise lounge chair, taking another sip of his beer, exasperated. "I just had freaking verbal diarrhea in the car with your wife!" he said defensively, chin jutting out. Arizona assessed him carefully. She hadn't seen this side of him in some time. In her peripheral vision, she saw Callie freeze at the door with a stack of plates and utensils.

"And?" Arizona challenged.

"And she probably thinks I'm a moron!" he was disgusted with himself. Karev was dying to divert the conversation, walk out, blast about something irritating but beside the point. He just wanted away from these feelings.

Arizona refused to allow it, locking eyes with him "And?" she replied again.

Callie wasn't sure what to do but felt relieved that Arizona seemed in charge of the conversation.

Karev looked at his beer, scraping part of the label off with his thumb. Then relented "My parents sucked you know?" looking to Arizona with hurt in his eyes. "So I don't have anyone to turn to about this crap!" he yelled in frustration.

Arizona put her BBQ tongs down and slowly straddled the chaise sitting knee to knee facing him, staring hard. "Well, you flew 3000 miles to get here, I'm assuming that's because you're turning to me." she let her challenge hang in the air for a moment. "Did I miss anything?" she leaned forward upping the ante.

Callie saw Karev's body relax back into the chair. After a long pause, Arizona slowly stood up, turning back to the grill. "I know you and I have been much closer but Callie's with me. You need something, you reach for it and keep going until she gets it, ok" Arizona directed.

Alex nodded his acknowledgment.

Arizona smirked " Now hand me that beer," she pointed with her tongs. Callie stepped on to the porch, setting the stack in her hands on the table. Alex handed over the other bottle.

Arizona held her beer up in the manner of offering a toast "She must have some ass Karev. Who is she?"

Callie made a groaning sound in her throat "Mmmm, this sounds like my kind of conversation" she said, putting her beer in the center to join the toast. The three bottles clinked and Callie settled into the other chair.

A smile broke across Alex's face; "Do remember Jo? Jo Wilson" he asked. Callie grunted her approval and the evening was underway.

Through the years, Callie would occasionally think back to that night. The image in her mind of the three beer bottles clinking against each other was the start of a new era.

Six months later he brought Jo out for a week. After careful inspection, they gave him the thumbs up. Over time, Callie and Karev became closer. Callie figured it out. Usually when people are angry, they want you to console them. That move scared the crap out of Alex. As a kid, no one ever stuck around to take care of him. He grew up unseen and scared he was too much to deal with. Arizona nailed it the first week he was on her service. Her "I've got my eyes on you Karev!" sounded like a controlling threat, but in Alex speak, that was "I see you, we're doing this together." He got pissed, she pushed right back, just a hair of intensity above wherever he was. This made him feel safe, knowing she was strong enough to hold him. It did take Alex extra sentences to get things out, if it was a part of himself that needed to grow forward to catch up with the rest. And, he valued personal loyalty over everything.

Alex circled back around a few more times for reinforcement purposes when he was at a crossroads; readying himself to propose to Jo, have his first baby, later career moves. Karev was younger than they were and waited late to have kids. Theirs were teenagers when Alex had his first of five kids. Not to be deterred, he brought his family out to stay with them almost every year. Making it feel to him like he and Arizona were raising their kids together. He learned to simply make the life he wanted.

Most importantly to Callie though, he stood by her the rest of her life after Arizona died.

Years after the fact, Jo let Callie know the day he got the call Arizona was in serious condition, he simply came and found her in the ER, reassigned or canceled his surgeries, and went straight to the airport. When it was evident Arizona was in critical condition, he called back east to tell the Board at Hopkins, he was taking a leave of absence. "They basically said no. It was a difficult time in his career as some behind the scenes politics were destabilizing his status as department head. He called me, told me what happened. I told him; Ahh, we can be doctors and our kids can go to school anywhere in the world. Family first. Alex told the Board they could give him the leave of absence or he could give them his resignation. My mom came to take care of the kids. I flew out two days later and you know the rest. We lost Arizona, and the Board at Hopkins decided not to fire him".

The events following Callie's death continued to unfold. Calls were made, the house filled with people arriving for support and in grief. The kitchen was busy with those who could prepare sustenance for others. Some stayed at the house; others went to their own homes or hotels. Callie and Arizona hovered sweetly, kissing each of their kids on the forehead as they fell asleep from exhaustion and loss. No one slept much though.

A few days later, a simple but elegant funeral laid Calliope Iphagena Torres, MD to rest next to her long lost wife. The adjoining headstones gave onlookers momentary relief, hope that the couple was somehow together again. Callie remembered spending quite a bit of time here when there was only one headstone, knowing her kids would follow suit, especially Carlos.  
After the funeral, Karev and Jo stayed for a while, checking in with the kids and helping with final arrangements.

Callie was the closest thing to a mother Alex had, they were friends of course but as they grew older, especially after Arizona died, he made frequent trips and phone calls. Alex thought he was taking care of Callie but Jo knew it was mostly the other way around. Jo missed Callie too, the only other person who knew the whole story of the "A team".

**Chapter 22**

Eventually, Callie's heart strings were pulled less and less, though she kept a close eye on everyone, even when they weren't thinking about her. "So is this our life now?" Callie asked Arizona one afternoon. "Watching the kids all day? How long will we be here? Until they come up?"

"There's more, you're still settling in though" Arizona replied as a matter of fact.

Looking around the condo "This place doesn't feel that important anymore" Callie remarked.

"Wow, that was fast" Arizona flashed her signature smile. "I almost forgot, top of the class Torres"

"Who me?" Callie asked in mock innocence.

"Did you stay here the whole time...waiting for me?" Callie wanted to know and realizing she had been so focused on herself she hadn't really asked Arizona about her...experience.

"Some, but not the whole time. I came back towards the end when I saw you were getting close. I wanted to have everything ready for you." Arizona explained.

"Can we go to the beach house in San Diego, stay there?" Callie

"Yep, whenever you're ready".

"I'm ready now" Callie said, a new level of peace settling in her.

Arizona reached out, taking her wife's hand "Let's go".

"I don't suppose we're packing?" Callie asked, mostly sure of the answer. Arizona started, then Callie cut in "Wait...everything we need will be there, right?" She searched Arizona's eyes.

Arizona thought for a minute. "We should take some things. Yes everything you need will be there but there's no point in feeling worried about it. I'll get some suitcases from the closet."

Callie was still part of two worlds, her past and present. "Arizona, wait," she called behind her wife. Walking to the console table, she picked up the first picture the couple ever took together and the last family photo with all of them. The selfie of the couple was on their third date, both smiling with the promise of things to come. The family shot, an impromptu group picture in the back yard the last time everyone gathered for Christmas. Grand-kids included and Arizona's smile beaming as their 6 ft 2 son Carlos had his mother riding piggy-back. "This is all I need" she said holding both pictures to her heart.

The couple walked out of their former building on to the street. Callie bid farewell to the hospital where her adult life unfolded and headed south. As was her common experience now, the fog slowly closed in behind her. A few minutes later she heard the cry of seagulls as the beach opened up before her.

"Can I ask, who was waiting for you when you... you know?

Arizona thought for a minute, clasping both her hands around one of Callie's.

"My brother Timothy, eventually, but I had things to go through first. My time started more like Mark's than like yours." Arizona was trying to decide how much she should say. Parts of it weren't pretty. But Callie was asking so some of her at least must be ready. Arizona started her story...

The pain was unbearable; she felt her insides being ripped from her body. Letting out a final blood curdling scream as she started to float up, Arizona Robbins grasped desperately at the woman on the table below her. She wasn't ready to go. She had kids, a wife, patients! This was the third time in as many days the white light approached her, she fought it off heroically every time. But today was not her day to win the battle between life and death. Hovering above herself in OR 3, desperately trying to read the monitors and asses her situation, reaching back down towards her body, the beep of the monitors started to fade.

Suddenly she gasped for breath as she felt herself sucked into something behind her. A deafening silence overcame her as she was torn from all she had known. Time ceased but she felt the speed, twisting and turning as she traveled. _Am I in a wormhole?_ recalling her and her brother's teenage devotion to Star Trek the next Generation. A loud popping sound broke into her thoughts and all was dark around her. _Breath_ she told herself attempting to regain her equilibrium. Turing her head looking all around, she couldn't see anything _Is it dark, or are my eyes closed?_ she thought in a desperate attempt to steady herself. Something jolted her, she spun around, looking to see what it was. The same thing happened again, like something ran her over from behind, flattening her to the ground. Balling her fists and steadying her legs as she got up. _Don't panic, breathe you can handle this._ Nothing more happened for some time.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a tiny speck of light, it was all she could see. Just then, something with a sharp corner hit her in the leg. "Ow!" the first word uttered out loud since she had been in the Life Flight helicopter crash three days before._ "What the...?_ Arizona decided to sit down until she could figure this out. She felt only space around her. Voices and chaos started to fill her head the sound of crunching metal, Sophia whimpering, Timothy Jr. close to her ear. "Mom? Mom? Can you hear me?". Callie's voice, "You're in the hospital sweetie, the helicopter lost altitude and crashed on the roof. Your patient is gonnna make it. "Mom, can you stay with us?" Carlos, her youngest, pleaded. "That's not what I asked you Derek, I asked if Callie knows if she does wake up, there may not be much left of her. Does she know?" Miranda Bailey pressed the neurosurgeon. "Dude, fight like hell in there, I'll handle everything else" her former protégé turned colleague turned lifelong friend Karev shored her up. The light caught her eye again. It was so small. _Is it big and far away or just a close by firefly that wasn't flying?_ No, she couldn't leave her wife and family, she wasn't ready, had responsibilities, she had to fight, hold on, she could overcome anything. She'd been through really tough times, she could do this. Arizona was knocked to her side and curled further into a ball to further protect herself from the unseen onslaughts.

A faint vision appeared in front of her "Arizona, if you have to go...,Jo Karev said, looking across the hospital bed at her husband. "We'll watch over Callie and the kids" Karev nodded to his wife. "If you can, try to give us some sign that you're ok" tears spilled from Jo's eyes.

"Don't make me crap my pants or anything dude" Karev choked out, "just, you know, something from the A team or whatever".

Monitors blared; a cardiac monitor flat lining rang in the air. Arizona floated up above her circumstances. Below her in slow motion Owen held his hand up as Callie started towards the OR table.

_Am I ok? I don't think so. I died, I'm dead. Am I unconscious? no I'm dead, I died in the OR. Maybe I'm in between_ Arizona thought to herself as she was buffeted by another large object. _Wherever I am, it's not great. what happened to the white light your supposed..._ Arizona pulled herself up, catching the glimpse again. _I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead_ she repeated to herself. Emotions overcame her when her real fear surfaced. _Nothing I do will make a difference, I can't go back..._She collapsed in a ball, overcome my emotion, crying, screaming furious! Over time her tears ended and her spirit settled.

She was the kind of person who fought for what she wanted, fought hard but learned the painful way not to avoid new realities. Losing her brother, her leg and almost her wife taught her there's a time to put your sword down and face change head-on. "I screwed up Arizona, why did I wait so long" she heard her childhood friend Nick saying, the day he admitted he's had a slow growing cancer for six years instead of six months before coming to her. A self-imposed death sentence, making him the second "brother" she was unable to save. "We're so proud of you" her mother said the day of her graduation from medical school. "I'm proud to be your father sweetheart" her father Daniel said just before walking her down the aisle at her wedding. Something pushed her from behind and she stumbled forward "STOP IT!" she screamed out loud or in her head, it was hard to tell anymore. Steeling her jaw, she turned. With nowhere else to go, she headed towards the pinpoint of light. Was she walking or floating? Hard to say, but she was moving closer. After a few minutes, she realized she was no longer being buffeted. Slowly the light became larger, flashlight size, like the ones in the emergency kits at the hospital. Something else was ahead too.

Coming into form, Arizona approached with caution. It was a soldier, walking ahead of her, desert fatigues, rucksack with a camelback - standard issue, rifle in his left hand. It wasn't her brother, this guy was taller, bigger, dark hair. Without either of them changing their pace, she pulled alongside him. "Jackson" the name patch sewn over his left breast pocket.

Arizona looked over at him as they walked finally breaking the silence. "Hey?"

The soldier beside her kept walking. After several more attempts to no avail, she stopped walking. The figure on her right stopped in unison, "That's not what you want to do", a stern but assured voice advised.

"So you do talk" Arizona said wryly. "What are we doing?" she questioned in an irritated tone.

Jackson looked solemnly at her, "You know" he said plainly, then turned to look ahead at the sun rising over a mountain range ahead. "You're going to face it".

Arizona studied the man in front of her, considering her options including a series of smart aleck retorts. The scene ahead looked lighter than where she had been. Not morning by any means but some distinguishable shapes at least. Or, perhaps her eyes were getting used to the dark?

"Who are you anyway?" she asked defensively but not over the top.

"Why are you asking questions you already know the answer to?" the soldier countered, pointing to his name patch.

"Did my brother send you?" she asked the obvious.

"No" Jackson did not elaborate.

Arizona was getting agitated, she opened her mouth to speak again

"You're stalling Robbins, you have to face it"

"Face what?" her tone upping the ante.

Jackson steadied his gaze at her.

"You know sometimes people ask questions they know the answer too to prepare themselves to ask questions they are afraid to know the answer too, right?" Her tone laced with sarcasm.

Jackson faced toward the light again, nodding his head "I can wait for a while"

**Chapter 23**

"What's up ahead?" she asked, vulnerability creeping into her voice. Making a conscious decision to let her guard down she told Jackson, "I need your help, I'm not sure what to do..."

The shift did not go unnoticed by her escort. " We're going to the part where you're stuck" Jackson said genuinely, his demenor relaxing.

Arizona found her feet moving forward again. She was starting to understand that Jackson was matching or _reflecting_ her. When she got off her high horse, making herself available, he started helping.

The soldier moved his rifle from his left hand, slinging it over his right shoulder, Arizona reached for his elbow, he obliged willingly.

"I'm still getting used to this whole thing, I'm not sure what I really believed, but this is not it. I thought I'd be nowhere or in some kind of heaven or cosmic consciousness, not being roughed up in the dark. I didn't end up in hell did I?"

Jackson smiled, "if you stayed back there it would seem like it" he said rather cryptically. "That place you're thinking about, it's ahead" pointing to the sun over a distant mountain range.

A few steps later Arizona turned to continue the conversation and realized she was alone, holding on to air rather than the arm that had been beside her. She turned abruptly searching "Jackson!?" she called loudly. Behind her, at the edge of her eyesight, Jackson waved a hand over his head, gave her the thumbs up signal and turned to head back the direction they came.

Arizona started towards him, her feet stuck for a moment, but long enough to understand she should keep going away from where she'd been. Turning as Jackson faded out of sight; she eyed the white orb ahead. Steeling her resolve, she started towards it.

Some time later, a figure in fatigues appeared again on the road ahead. Arizona picked up her pace. Approaching, it wasn't Jackson, marine core for sure, pony tail in the back, _a woman_. Coming alongside her, Arizona read the name patch.

"Thomalson, Susanna Thomalson" the raven haired soldier said in her frank introduction. "Shall we?" indicating a forward path.

Arizona nodded. As they started, she noticed a familiar limp. "That shit hurts at first" both women knowing she was referring to the prosthetic hidden beneath the soldiers dessert cackies. "I see you got the foot that fits into boots" she smiled, hoping the stranger would understand her comments as camaraderie.

"You're tellin' me" Susanna replied in a southern accent. "How long till the pain stopped for yours?" she asked.

"It never actually stopped, but it did get better. After about a year, I could walk around on it most of the day without too much trouble, but mainly I learned to live with it" Arizona informed the younger woman.

"I never made it that far, only a couple of months after being fitted."

"Made it that far?" Arizona asked slightly confused.

"I killed myself. Stocked up on my pain meds, OD'd in a cheap motel room near my parents' house. Feeling I was damaged goods an all that".

Arizona halted in her tracks.

"It was he weirdest thing" the twenty-something soldier turned to face her. "You know what I remember thinking as I was dying?

"Mmm?" Arizona presented her best clinical and maternal self to manage the emotions rising in her.

"Where are all these people going? The motel was along a highway and cars were constantly whizzing by...How come I have no place to go?"

Arizona took in a deep breath, studying her new companion. Placing a hand firmly on Thomalson's forearm, "I'm really sorry, I was there myself, the damaged goods and I considered...but I had a kid and a wife, people depending on me...I took it out on them but at least I had them" She stopped talking abruptly, realizing her words may be hurtful. The young woman before her didn't seem old enough to have any of those things and obviously had been depressed enough to believe nothing good lay ahead for her. She had nothing to fight for.

Seeing the stricken look on Dr. Robbins's face. "I'm ok now" she assured, reaching back to squeeze Arizona's shoulder.

Arizona liked Susanna. Wondered if she knew her brother and if this was the kind of woman he spent time with while he was in Iraq.

"No and yes" Susanna replied, smiling.

Arizona felt her body relaxing. "Can I ask some questions?"

"Fire away Dr. Robbins"

You know who I am?

"More like I know what I need to know when I need it."

"This isn't heaven." it was a statement, not a question.

"Part of it, but not the part you think of".

"So I'll be leaving?"

"Up to you"

"I have unfinished business here?"

"Yep".

Arizona pondered her next question, "Is my family ok?"

"Struggling with loosing you, but safe for sure"

"Do you have unfinished business here?"

"I'm here by choice." Thomalson clarified. "You came up with Jackson right?"

Arizona nodded affirmatively.

We're ...guardians here. People who come here are stuck, we were stuck too but got through it. We decided to come back, kind of like volunteering. This place is dim in your eyes, but we can see what you can't. Jackson picks up the first leg, when someone decides to help themselves.

"And you guys help us?" Arizona was trying to make sense of her circumstances.

"Well, we can't do more for you than you do for yourself if that's what you mean. That place you were, in the dark, feeling knocked around. You had your own hands covering your eyes. You were afraid to see your truth. That's why it seemed so dark.

"Well, I wasn't stuck very long though," Arizona was accustomed to being at the top of the class.

Thomalson smiled at her. "Some souls stay there. Jackson and others keep watch. We can't intervene but as soon as you act on your own behalf, we can meet you there."

How long am I with you?

"We have two shit-storms ahead, Dr. Robbins. A battlefield in Iraq and a plane crash. I'll be with you."

I'm glad to know that" Arizona smiled, recognizing the military nick-name for trouble "and I think you should call me Arizona. OK if I call you Susanna?

**Chapter 24**

Back on the beach, the fog began to clear ahead, signaling Arizona it was time to stop her story.

Callie sloshed as the ocean ran up to cover their feet. "I don't remember being in a place like that, a dark place. I went straight to the beach house I think" Callie searched her memory.

"Everyone has their own path. Sometimes it's different, especially if your death was unexpected. Time runs out to make amends, things left unsaid and all that." Arizona explained. "Here we are" she said looking to their left, the house in front of them. "Race you to the deck?" Arizona challenged.

Callie cocked an eyebrow, reacquainting herself with her wife's hutzpah. "You're on! 15 second rule?" Invoking the time delay system they agreed upon decades ago to fairly accommodate Arizona's prosthetic limb in these types of competitions.

"Winner gets?" Arizona lifted her left eyebrow in a flirty gesture reeling Callie right in.

A smile broke across Callie's face. Two fingertips drawing a line from Arizona's Adam's apple down between her breasts and hooking into her belt buckle; "whatever she wants?"

"Deal" Arizona turned and took off running.

Callie's broad smile erased itself as she saw Arizona had her real leg back. "Hey!" she called, starting to run before the 15 seconds were up.

"I know what I want!" Arizona looked back, accelerating as she saw Callie starting towards her. She hadn't had her prosthetic since Callie arrived but figured she should get some advantage from having it on earth all those years. Arizona teased Callie by slowing just enough for her to get close before bounding up the stairs leading from the beach to deck. "Woo hoooo! I win!" she cried at the top, arms raised overhead.

Callie was only a few steps behind, not the type to give up before the finish line and grabbed Arizona by the waist, swinging her around easily "Not fair, not fair!"

"Don't be a sore looser Callie" the blond teased, keeping up her victory chant. Feet back on the ground, Arizona turned, lifting herself up to sit on the wooden railing, pulling Callie closer, wrapping her legs around the brunette's waist, arms around her neck, reaching up to kiss her full lips.

Catching her breath after the race and the kiss "Ok, Dr. Robbins, What'll it be" Callie cocked an eyebrow.

"So you're admitting I won?" Arizona looked up seductively.

"I'm a fan of these type of prizes because I never end up feeling like I actually lost, so I'm good" Callie answered a slightly different question, not giving Arizona total satisfaction, although she planned to soon.

Later that night, Callie kissed her sleeping wife's forehead and ventured out of the bedroom. She'd been up for a long time but wasn't tired. Knowing it would be there but not sure how, she opened a dresser drawer to find the hoodie, t shirt and jersey pants she wanted to wear, _Arizona thought of everything_. After changing she looked around the corner, her house slippers waiting for her feet. Newly dressed, she headed out to the porch. The air was cool, the smell of the ocean and the crash of waves in the distance comforted her. And the stars, _I've never seen so many, so bright_ Callie thought as she covered herself with a blanket, lying back on the chaise. Closing her eyes, she breathed in deeply, drifting into the world around her.

Sometime later she became aware of her back on the chair again,_ I'm changing, I feel it._ Her personality was fully intact but the edges were smoothing. Edges harboring fear, anxiety, worry that things weren't going to be ok. Callie was also grateful her sense of humor crossed over with her. Initially she harbored a small fear that she would have to be more..holy or something like that.

There had been a moment during their lovemaking. She thought she felt it once before back in the condo but was sure this time. Kissing Arizona's neck, laying on top of her, Callie kind of ...melted…into her wife. The line between where Callie ended and Arizona began completely blurred. Callie never felt this...close. Her mind shifted to events of the last couple of...weeks, still feeling the need to think of things in terms of a familiar reference.

"Penny for your thoughts?" came the sweet voice over her shoulder. Arizona stepped on the porch and Callie noticed the sun rising over the ocean.

"I was-" she stopped talking, her brain wondering why the sun was rising over the ocean when the beach in San Diego, California faced due west, then knowing. "Nice scenery" she tossed a smirk in Arizona's direction.

"Thanks, we didn't get to see this much living on the west coast" Arizona climbed under the cotton blanket propping herself up on one elbow running her fingers through dark brown locks, staring into the face she'd loved for so many years. Callie laid back, letting herself receive. Not her strong suit on earth, she always felt the urge to be doing something back in lieu of just being. Over time, Callie swore she felt Arizona's touch unbuttoning her skin along the mid-line of her torso. Placing a hand on her heart, Arizona was not touching skin covering muscle covering bone; Callie felt her hand sink _inside_ her heart. Sometime later she placed her head on Arizona's chest, periodically laying open mouth kisses. Two lips and the tip of her tongue to taste her wife's skin, drifting in and out of a sleepy haze. It was all, well, heaven.

**Chapter 25**

It was morning, Callie rolled over, Arizona was already up. Venturing into the kitchen she was about to make coffee when a thought occurred. She decided to imagine a cup of coffee, just the way she liked it. Closing her eyes in concentration, after a minute, it appeared on the counter. _Kinda freaky but kinda great_ she thought to herself in a sing song voice. _So this is what Arizona has been talking about_. She tasted it, _not bad for my first try_. "Arizona?" she called in the house, excited to show her accomplishment. No reply. Walking back out the sliding glass door scanning the beach, a petite blond figure was at the shoreline, talking to someone, in a mono colored pink outfit? Callie watched them for a few minutes wondering what was going on. The pink outfitted woman, _are those scrubs?_ she thought to herself, handed a white bundle to Arizona and headed off with a wave. Arizona stayed at the shoreline rocking the bundle, _a baby?_ then turned to walk back towards the house. Callie waved from the porch, Arizona lifted one hand to wave back. _It is a baby. Arizona's carrying a baby_. Callie sipped her coffee, vaguely recalling Arizona mentioning she had some other duties up here.

Arizona came up the steps "Morning" she smiled, "we have a visitor" she kissed her wife on the cheek. "Baby Boy Doe, meet Callie". _Baby Boy Doe?_ Callie's heart ached for a beat, knowing that's what they named babies who were abandoned.

Callie looked beyond the confines of the white cotton blanket to see a very, very tiny human. "22, 23 weeks?", having spent years visiting her wife in the NICU, she'd gotten good at this. But, seeing such vulnerable, fragile being and knowing he was a Doe...

"As micro as they come" Arizona looked lovingly at the wisp of fragility in her arms. Arizona sat on a lounge chair, opened her shirt a few buttons and laid Baby Boy Doe on her. Skin to skin contact against her beating heart was the least she could do. Covering the rest of him with the cotton blanket, she gingerly kissed his head. "From time to time they come to me" she explained to Callie.

"Who was that, in the scrubs?"

"Her name is Jeanette, she and some other nurses help out up here too".

Callie studied the baby, and her wife. "So...I should expect to turn the corner and find a compound fracture or something? Callie asked, sarcasm lacing her voice.

"Only if you want to. And, it will be later I think. At first, I was busy with family and friends and getting settled myself. Later on, I volunteered for this. I figured, Jackson and Susanna helped me so I could help too. And it gave me something to do while I was waiting for you. But there are no rules about it. "Arizona explained.

"Ok, what do we do?" Callie asked.

"Mostly I just hold them close, sometimes I talk to them, sometimes they show me things. Mostly I keep them close so they don't feel like they are bumping onto things"

"Like you did at first? Callie inquired

"Yeah," glad to see her wife was catching on, "exactly like that".

"How long will he be here?" "Mmm, it varies. When he's ready, a family member or another volunteer will come to take him on the next leg of his journey."

"Was he born at Grey + Sloan? Do we know him somehow?"

"Not exactly. He's not related to us in any way. Jeanette said he was born in a motel to a teenage mom. He was left there...out back you know". They both knew it was a euphemism for dumpster. Tears formed in the corners of Callie's eyes, terrible images crowding her head. Arizona sat up, and placed one hand on Callie's knee. "Hey, he's ok, he's on his way home now and he's with us, so all that stuff is behind him" she smiled hoping it would settle her wife.

Callie looked at the ocean for a few minutes, then at her coffee, then back at Arizona and the baby. "Anything I can do? Should I get some...diapers or something?" "Come sit with us" Arizona laid back on the double chaise, scooting over to make room for Callie. "Want to hold him?" she asked.

"Yeah, yeah I do" she decided. Callie opened the neckline of her hoodie enough to create a V the perfect size for Baby Boy Doe and rested the tiny being so he could hear her heartbeat. Arizona turned on her side and the three drifted off, wrapped together. Baby Boy Doe had known only pain, cold, noise, and chaos in his short life so the mothers showered him with peace and warmth. Callie dreamed the three of them were floating, images in front of them like a movie, she saw everything. Each horrifying scene of Doe's life was played out, and then bathed in a glowing purple light until it faded away. Callie did get the sense that the three of them were making everything better. Sometime later, she thought the baby was moving. Checking, he was safely nestled, wrapped in two arms, one from each of them. He hadn't moved but Callie did sense he was better. Just then the doorbell rang.

Arizona opened her eyes, sat up and kissed the baby on his head. "I'll get that, maybe he's ready to go.

Callie hugged the micro preme tight, feeling completely bonded "you can stay here you know, we want you, no matter what happened to you" she assured him. The magic words had been spoken. Doe stirred, taking a deep breath in, then settling back in the cradle of Callie's chest.

Arizona returned with a young man in a black Harley Davidson t-shirt, jeans, brown boots and long dark hair, holding his arms out for the baby. "I'm Jarred" he introduced himself. Callie stood up carefully, bracing the valuable package in her care, eyeing the man suspiciously, not for his looks but because her protective maternal instincts were on overdrive having cradled such a vulnerable being most of the morning. The man dropped his arms, recognizing the situation, remembering when he was new at this too. Callie looked hard into his eyes, green eyes, there was only peace there. "Hi" Callie said flatly. Steeling her eye to his...again, only peace.

"Thank you for taking care of my grandson, I'm grateful he was able to make it to me so quickly. May I join you?" pointing to the patio.

Callie clucked her cheek and stepped back turning Doe away from the visitor. Jarred calmly walked out on the deck and took a seat.

Arizona's eyes widened as she realized Callie was considering not letting go of the baby and made a mental note to scale back her volunteering until Callie got more used to heaven!. "Callie?" Arizona questioned, her tone leaving nothing unsaid.

Callie looked back and forth between Grandpa, wife and Doe. "Sorry, I just got attached to the little guy, you know?" Kissing the baby's head. Callie didn't like this but trusted Arizona, and was starting to trust herself in this new place, knowing somewhere inside Jarred was exactly the right person. Callie handed Doe over to waiting arms. The moment they were together, Callie saw the micro preme smile and relax deeply into the man. Although way too young to have smile muscles, she saw it with her own eyes. He would be well taken care of.

Jarred stood up smiling, "Thank you both, you're welcome to visit anytime" nodding at Callie, then retreated the way he entered. Callie crossed her arms turning her back on the house, looking out at the ocean. Thinking of the heartbreaking images Doe had shown her. Arizona walked the boys out. Returning to the porch, she wrapped her arms around Callie's waist, leaning her forehead in between the taller woman's shoulder blades.

"I wasn't cut out for Peds, you were nice to never say it, but it's true. Now God an everybody knows I guess" she was quiet for a moment. "When Alex started spending all his time on your service, I asked him what he liked about Peds. He said you told him that's where the toughest bad ass surgeons in the hospital go. I think I smirked or made fun of him...turns out..."

Arizona turned Callie around to face her. "Callie, you did great today. And we were lucky; we both got to do what we were meant to do. Think of all the people you helped." Arizona said soothingly."Hey you asked about your parents last night. Are you ready to go see them?

**Chapter 26**

"Calliope" a familiar deep voice called from across the field.

"Papa!" Callie yelled, squeezing Arizona's hand, then turning to run to her father. Tears traced her cheeks as she lunged into his arms. Callie's mother and sister Aria circled behind her for a Torres family hug circle. Callie turned to each one hugging them for dear life. She was surprised when she realized her sister looked older, like in her 60's when she passed

"Callie, you're so young!" Aria exclaimed in Spanish.

"I mirrored Arizona, she's been waiting for me" Callie said excitedly pointing back across the field at a familiar petite blonde figure making her way towards the group.

"Ah yes" her mother said, "we've been keeping up with each other, taking turns checking in on you."

"This place is amazing!" Callie was about to burst. She felt so light and so happy. In a moment, Aria and Callie were little girls again, chasing each other, playing tag. The rest of the day went like that, talking about everything, Callie bringing them up to speed on events since they passed asking constantly "did you see when…?". Her parents accurately relayed the situations she asked about. They were there for her and her kids when Arizona died, checking in on them, and sending love to them. Callie realized _you really can see everything from here_. They enjoyed spending time together until the sun was starting to set. Callie really wanted to know if her parents were proud of her, of the life she had made after they left. They assured her they were.

"Mija, we watched you in awe, only wishing we never had to die, wishing we could be with you always to share in your trials and accomplishments." Carlos stated boldly.

I'm proud of you as a woman and a mother" her mother added.

Callie's heart was bursting by the end of the day. "I'll be able to see you again?" She questioned her parents and sister.

"Yes, again for sure Aria smiled.

Callie took Arizona's hand in both of hers as they walked along the cliff towards home, watching the sun dip over the horizon. "So the sun rises and sets over the same ocean? Callie laughed a little, putting her arm around Arizona's neck, kissing her temple. "Over our ocean it does" Arizona smiled back warmly.

**Chapter 27**

"I forgot to tell you, I made coffee!" Callie said excitedly.

Arizona cocked her head slightly. Callie had been making coffee since she got here..."Oh", she understood in an instant," you mean you "made" coffee?!"

"Yeah! Wannna see?"

"Yes, yes, show me!" Arizona jumped in to Callie's excitement.

"Come on!" Callie grabbed her hand.

Arizona thought it was completely sweet that Callie was taking them into the kitchen to "make" coffee but didn't mention anything as she was happy to see Callie feeling accomplished. Callie had been deferring to her, especially after visiting Mark and that was no problem. It's hard to adjust to a new environment. Ultimately though, the more Callie could see her effect here, the stronger she would feel. Callie whipped up a cup of coffee and at Arizona's encouragement, the kitchen counter was soon filled with Margaritas and trays of Callie's favorite foods! Callie was on fire with her new found skills and threw an impromptu party right there in the kitchen!

After a few drinks, "Ok, do an object now" Arizona prompted.

"Ok, like?"

"Ooo, the picture of us on the beach in Miami, the one in the kitchen in your, our house.

"Ok, ok stand back" Callie jumped up. Closing her eyes, arms stretched in front of her in a grand gesture. It was faint at first, just the outline. Slowly, the distressed wooden frame and picture solidified on the wall in front of them.

Warm feelings filled Arizona as it came into being. They stayed with Callie's parents, which included some rockiness when the four of them were together, but the day alone on the beach was a precious memory. They swam, ate, and had drinks. Callie talked all day, telling Arizona stories of her childhood and teenage years. As the sun made its way down, Callie walked them around a secluded corner at the far end of the beach. Arizona remembered those kisses as some of the most passionate they ever had.

Callie turned to see Arizona looking at her creation, chin resting in her hand, a dreamy look in her eyes. "Pretty cool huh?"

"Really, really cool. What an awesome day, remember." Arizona confirmed

"I remember you wanted to have sex that night and God knows that wasn't going to happen in my parent's house!" Callie cocked an eyebrow holding both hands up in a blocking gesture.

"You made it up to me when we got home so I' was good" Arizona shot a seductive look to her partner.

Callie came around the counter, gently opened Arizona's knees so she could stand closer. Arizona stayed on the stool but wrapped her legs around her partner. As she leaned in for a kiss, the picture slid down the wall hitting the floor with a clunk. "Hey?" Callie turned her head.

"I'll get it" Arizona said quickly as the picture slid back up to it's original place, Arizona focused on it a few extra seconds for good measure. She wanted Callie's successes to stay that way. Arizona craned her neck up to meet Callie's lips, remembering the kisses from the picture, a lifetime ago. Callie remembered too and in a moment she was breathing heavy, her body on fire under Arizona's touch.

Arizona kissed the soft skin on Callie's chest and-  
"- Uh what happened to my clothes?" Callie looked down, seeing she was completely naked except for a lacy bra and panties.

"Oh...just moving things along" Arizona looked up in mock innocence.

"Just moving things along eh..." Callie squinted hard, imagining Arizona sans top. Arizona felt her cotton t start to fade and relaxed into it. A minute later, Callie opened her eyes, feasting on her wife. "Ok, this will work" Callie was proud of her work and bent down immediately to kiss it. Over the next few days, Arizona found herself unexpectedly in various states of undress, but did note Callie was making progress.

One afternoon, Arizona walked in the front door, returning from a tiny human errand. "Callie?" Arizona said suspiciously as her clothes flew off the moment she was inside. Callie simply returned a smirk letting her lover know her thoughts were descending south of heaven quickly! Callie reached for Arizona, her own clothes appearing in a pile on the floor. Callie leaned in kissing Arizona deeply, taking her full in her arms. "I just feel so free, so light." Callie even felt like her smile was wider somehow.

Later, outside on the porch; "You mean I can have anything I want anytime?" Callie asked for clarification.

"For the most part. Kind of like down on earth but it happens faster. It takes a little getting used..." Music blared as Arizona sat up with a start. A line of 20 Vegas style high kicking female dancers in sexy low cut red bustiers and high cut black and red lace panties appeared in front of them. Callie admired their flexibility. "Wow, this is great!" Callie called out over the music, holding up a drink.  
Although startled, Arizona could only smile. She loved Callie and their life together, both of their lives but she hadn't lived with her for a long time. Some of this would take getting used to as Callie's whole-self continued to unfold in heaven. Callie closed her eyes tightly, a look of concentration fell over her face and the dancers were gone. "Anything, I can do that with anything? Callie asked excitedly.

"Well, small things at first" Arizona barely got her words out before she found herself sitting in the cherry position atop a 40 foot hot fudge sunday "Callipoe Torres!" she protested. Arizona barely resisted including Iphegena, the middle name Callie never liked to hear.

Callie looked up in wonderment. Piles of banana ice cream dripping with gooey hot fudge sauce, whip cream. She could just go live there!

"Let me down Callie" Arizona yelled in a calmer but still stern voice.

"You look good enough to eat!" Callie called up with delight, smile beaming, fists pumping hips asserting themselves in a victory motion. Laughter echoed from both women as they realized the humor of the situation, Arizona high a-top Callie's favorite summer dessert!

The monolith of ice cream disappeared as Callie licked hot fudge sauce off her fingers and the two were lying together on the comfy chaise, laughing. Arizona found herself without a stitch of clothing on, again. A bottle of lavender massage oil appeared. Arizona smiled and laid on her back putting her hands behind her head, signaling Callie that she was ready for anything considering her new-found powers.

**Chapter 28**

OK, so how is this gonna work? Callie asked.

Arizona thought for moment. "It's different for everyone. When I go see him, I'm not in the plane next to Lexi like you were..." her voice trailed off.

"Information, I need more information" Callie said to no one in particular, frustrated.

"Callie, how about-"

"- Look, you and Little Grey have said things, like you know more about it than I do, but when I ask, I get these weird answers, like you are not telling me what you know. Why-"

"-Callie, take a deep breath" Arizona knew this was a risky move. Telling her wife to calm down had always been a gamble. The look on Callie's face let her know she had guessed right, this time. "You will see what YOU need to see. It's not right for me or Lexi or anyone to try to tell you what is going to happen. We don't know, it's your experience. Mark is stuck right now, kind of like you were not accepting my death but on a bigger scale. You had a chance to come to terms with it and you did. Your denial was not super deep-seated ok. It was a small part of you, so while it was painful, you did let it go. You said it took you two trips to the OR viewing deck right?"

"Yeah" Callie replied.

"Mark is stuck too...in a different way" She let the words settle in.

"Do I have something to do with it?" Callie asked honestly

"There's something in it for you but you are not keeping him there if that's what you mean" Arizona was not sure how else she could explain it. "I'll go with you" she ended her trying stating the only truth she knew for sure.

"I was think-" Callie started

"-Wait, something's not right Callie" Arizona tried to focus. They both abruptly grabbed their hearts, "hold my hand" Arizona said reaching out. Moments later they were floating above a highway, deformed cars below them.

"Sophia!" Callie screamed down.

"Go to her, I'll get Roberto" Arizona organized the couple's next moves.

Callie swooped down to the driver's side of the car. "Sophia!" her daughter was pressed back against the seat, a white airbag with blood on in it deflated in front of her chest. Sophia was unconscious, head back against the headrest of her seat, mouth open, arms dangling at her sides. Callie understood intuitively her daughter was not due to join her at this moment and slowed her spirit breathing.

Arizona laid eyes on her grandson. The impact caused him to slam forward and partially slip under his seat belt, his neck wrenched in a disturbing position, his left leg broken at least, as the front passenger side of the engine consumed it.

Callie instinctively grabbed for her daughter but to no avail. Her hands passed right through the car and body in front of her like air. Sophia's body stayed where it was but a semi-transparent version of it tilted her head down sitting upright and turned to look out the window,

_Mama?_, her eyes questioning.

A calm settled over Callie as she smiled gently, nodding _No, not yet baby, you have more to do here._ Callie couldn't say where her knowing came from, only that she was sure.

_Mama? _her eldest asked again.

_I'm fine baby, mom and I are here._ Callie nodded for her daughter to look towards the passenger side of the car.

_Mom?_ hurt started to fill Sophia's eyes, the holographic her

_Hi love.._ Arizona used the endearing term to address all of her children and reached a long arm across the car to quiet her oldest child's spirit. _Mama and I are good, we're always with you._

Callie reached in, holding her hand over Sophia's heart. Sophia looked over to her son and saw her mom had her hand on his heart.

The transparency leaned back into the shape of the solid body it came from. With a jerk, the body took a sharp intake of breath, eyes fluttering open.

Callie looked through the car. Arizona waved her over. "He'll be ok but he has a nasty break in his left leg, come check it"

Callie reappeared on the passenger side "It's crushed, his left leg is totally crushed" Callie looked at Arizona.

"But he'll live" Arizona stated for all people and spirits who needed reassurance "He'll be ok"

An older man limping feverishly on his cane approached the passenger side of the vehicle "Is everyone ok? Can you hear me!?" the bystander called to the passengers in the earth car.

Arizona and Callie stepped back. A siren wailed in the distance signaling the arrival of an ambulance and rescue engine.  
Sophia instinctively turned towards her son, saw the metal of the car folded around him and started to reach for him.

"Don't move!" the elderly man held up both hands towards Sophia, one holding his cane "Stay in the car" he said firmly remembering his EMT training as a teenager. Both passengers were currently being supported by the seats. The boy especially, the pressure of the car now encasing his leg was keeping pressure on the damaged limb. "Don't move him" "My name is Jimmy". He felt the back of Roberto's neck and gently palpated his spine. "I think he's intact".

The use of the language took Sophia off guard but the stranger's reassurance was welcome. She breathed in deeply and looked down at her hands, instinctively squeezing them into fists. She turned to look out her window, thinking she's smelled the lotion one of her moms always wore.

The scene was soon flooded with rescue personnel and more bystanders. Roberto was transported by helicopter to University of Maryland shock trauma unit. Arizona flew with him. She hesitated for a moment as she climbed in. _Familiar_, she thought. Her life essentially ended in a very similar helicopter and she certainly hadn't been in one since. At a crossroads, she of course chose her grandson over her own fear. Steeling herself she climbed in sitting next to the flight medic, hand on her grandson's left leg. The chopper took off. She understood now why she was with Roberto instead of Callie.

**Chapter 29**

"Hey" Teddy Altman, 2.0, acknowledged Arizona.

"Hi Teddy!" Arizona smiled at her long ago friend, fellow angel and Cardio God on earth as it is in heaven.

She floated above and assessed Roberto on the stretcher below. Teddy cocked her head quizzically, floated lower to get a closer look at something, then looked back at Arizona. "His heart's fine," she reassured. "But that leg..." Teddy floated back up, "want me to hang around?" she asked earnestly.

Arizona liked the idea but knew Teddy was busy. "Still with your guys from Iraq?"

"Yeah. Hey next time we go down there, let's work on ending war. Even the ones who live don't fully come home again. Everyone's suffering, on both sides...no one won"

"Count me in" Arizona assured her former friend "Callie's up by the way"

"Great!" Teddy exclaimed, "wait...she picked you right?" concern creeping into her voice

"Of course!" Arizona responded with familiar bravado that made both of them relax and remember their recent lives for a moment.

"You guys were always my idol you know" Teddy grinned

"Come see us when you can ok?" Arizona offered

"It's a date!" Teddy smiled and popped out of the existence.

The chopper landed on the roof of the hospital the surgical transport team quickly took report from the flight medics and whisked Roberto into the world renowned shock trauma unit

Ten minutes later on the ground below; the blare of the ambulance stopped, signaling arrival at the hospital. As the back the doors opened, a semi-transparent familiar red-head looked directly at Callie.

"Owen?" she questioned, remembering he died of a rare form of lung cancer associated with sarin gas.

"I got this" he made a reassuring hand gesture towards her. The paramedics unloaded Sophia and the trauma surgeons began assessing her as they wheeled her into the ER. Owen Hunt oversaw their work.

Callie stood close by, arms folded across her chest watching every move made in the vicinity of her daughter. After she was stabilized and resting, a semi-transparent intern entered the room. "Dr. Hunt, Dr. Torres? Dr. Robbins needs you to check some scans". Callie reached for her daughter. Owen re-assured Callie all was going as planned and they headed for the X-ray room.

Callie and Owen joined Arizona and the earth team viewing the scans of her grandson's left leg.

"He has a long road back but he'll make it. They're keeping him sedated for a while. His brain scan will be fine, neck is sprained. A little nerve damage but nothing broken or severed". Owen reassured the grandmothers.

"I'm going to check on him" Callie was relieved. While she missed her family desperately, the price was high for having any of them join her and Arizona. Right now she wanted them to be with each other.

"I'll be with Sophia. Hunt you're with me", Arizona said, grateful everybody was going to make it.

"Callie, when you're ready, just think of Arizona and Sophia, you'll find us." Owen made sure to leave his colleague with the information she needed to take her next step.

Callie shifted to the ICU and stood next to Roberto's bed.

"It's ok, you're going to be ok" Callie spoke gently, smoothing the tossel of hair covering his forehead. In his medically induced comatose state, Callie realized she had no access to him. Reassured he was going to be ok, she closed her eyes and thought of her daughter and Arizona.

"Are you freaking kidding me!?"

Callie heard an aggressive female voice as she entered her daughter's realm.

"Pompe, Pompe, Pompe's Disease!" Erica Hahn, famous cardiologist and Seattle Grace Alum pounded her spirit fist on the desk next to the earth doctor viewing Sophia's chest scan. "Hunt? What kind of place are you running here?!"

"I-" Owen started.

"Erica?" Callie questioned after fully forming in the room.

"Hey Cal" she nodded, using the only other nickname Calliope Torres ever had. Theirs had been a brief, eye-opening, and torrid affair. First time with a woman for both . For Erica, it was a revelation, she knew then she was gay. Callie was less sure, immediately attempting to re-heterosexualize herself with Mark Sloan, to no avail though. She thought sex would be different, less or more somehow with a man. But no, it was the time she realized she was...fluid? Bisexual? She certainly wasn't raised that way, not that anyone was in her day. But understood she had choices. She was open to the person. Sex she was or would be good at, man or woman wasn't an issue.

Callie's eyes widened as she turned to Arizona, in a low voice "She seems kind of rough, you know, for up here I mean".

"I'm not as sweet as I used to be Torres" Erica responded loudly.

Busted, Callie swiftly arched her right eyebrow and re-focused on medicine. "Pompe's disease? What is it" she asked, walking towards Erica, arms crossed over her chest.

Arizona never met Erica Hahn, only heard stories about her. Judging from the scene in front of her, she had nothing to worry about as far as Callie was concerned in the before or afterlife. Callie was a lot of woman. She needed someone very strong beside her. But overbearing and demanding were not the right traits to anchor the fiery, brilliant Latina.

"It was rare back in our day, but I found a cure for it. Well officially, I started the trial that found the cure anyway. My punk PHD student assistant took the credit since I died before the end of the trial."

"Erica, show him, in the right way, instead of standing around being angry and ungrateful. Please?" Hunt redirected the conversation.

Exasperated, Erica gently circled a finger over the troublesome area yet unseen on the chest scan earth doctor was concentrating on. "Paryspinal muscle atrophy" Erica said quietly. The area under Erica's finger illuminated, almost imperceptibly to the human eye. Earth Doctor squinted and became aware of a new area on the scan, leaning in for a closer look.

"Bingo!" Hahn's un-angelic voice called it. "This deuphus will always think Sophia is here because she was in a car accident. He doesn't understand that part of the accident was to get her here, so he could diagnose her" Hahn shook her head, dismayed at the at the impotence of earth people.

Earth doctor walked out of the radiology room.

"Cal, she'll be fine from here. He's going to find the Cardio attending who NOT by coincidence is well schooled in my work". Erica assured Callie in her forceful way. "Well, time flies when you're having fun, I'm out of here" Erica announced to the room.

Callie wanted to say something, connect with her. They had nothing to lose, both in the afterlife. She wondered how Erica's life had turned out, wanted to share hers, and wished she could talk to her but the opening was not there.

Sophia was put on medication immediately and then treated genomically for her condition. She would make a full recovery. For the remainder of her life, she was of two minds about the accident. Her son took the brunt of it and she was forlorn that her baby was hurt so badly. But, her heart condition may have gone unnoticed if she hadn't ended up in the hospital. Un-diagnosed, she would not have been around to raise her kids. And a few times over her life, in a quiet moment while driving a long distance on a highway, she felt a sense of comfort wash over her. She remembered smelling the lotion her Mama always wore and liked to think her moms were watching over her and her family.

**Chapter 30**

Later that day, Roberto's brain scan proved negative and he was awakened from his medically induced coma. In severe pain, he was operated on a few hours later.

Callie and Arizona stood table-side in the OR , literally breathing down the neck of the Ortho surgeon attending to their grandson. "It's awfully hot in here today." Dr. Jacobs commented to his surgical team. "Can someone turn down the air please?"

"We can get a better view from above" Owen started to float, signaling for Arizona and Callie to join him. His hope, to relieve some of the intensity around the table.

Callie floated...but low...

Scrutinizing every move made over her grandson's leg. It was badly damaged. At the end of the surgery, she ascended closer to the ceiling to report to Owen and Arizona. "They did a good job, I think he'll walk again". Arizona had a different inkling but decided not to mention it then, her grandson may follow in _her_ footsteps, literally.

In the recovery room, Callie, Arizona, Owen and Teddy stood around Roberto. When Teddy popped in, Callie greeted her, updated her on Roberto's condition. Once in his room, Owen returned to his duties and Teddy asked Callie to go for coffee. Callie automatically assumed she and Arizona were going, but her wife begged off to check on their daughter. The former colleagues imagined the coffee they wanted, cafeteria coffee was never that great, and took a seat at in an area with many empty tables.

Teddy caught Callie up on her current work. "The biggest thing I've had to lean up here to be able to feel sorry for what happened to someone and be ok with not being able to fix it"

"Yikes!" Callie teased, "That's not surgeon talk". They both laughed out loud. All at once, Callie realized this was the longest she'd been without Arizona in heaven.

"Are you ok with it?" Teddy responded to her thoughts.

"Yeah!" Callie said in a high pitched voice, she was still getting used to not feeling embarrassed when her thoughts were heard like words."So you and Owen?" Callie asked. On earth they went through a war together and Owen was undecided for some time between Christina Yang and Teddy. Secretly, Callie rooted for Teddy.

"I chose Henry and he chose me", referring to her friend turned husband in name only for insurance reasons turned lover and real husband who died during surgery soon after.

"Wow, that's a blast from the past" Callie smiled.

"I had a lot of nice boyfriends over the years but never got married again" Teddy explained, "Henry and I were still in honeymoon phase when he died so I figured why not spend eternity like _that_!" They laughed together again. Teddy went to Sophia's room with Callie. "Pompe's Disease, you know Erica Hahn is the-"

"-she took care of it, made sure Sophia's doctor found it" Callie explained.

"I'm going to pop over and check in with Arizona and Roberto, then head back. It was great seeing you again. I'll catch up with you later" Teddy flashed her warm smile and departed. Sophia's family had arrived. The doctor was explaining her condition and her husband was relieved finding out she would be fully recovered in a few months. Roberto ended up not following in his grandmother's footsteps.

"Kids are more resilient" Arizona's familiar refrain as the doctor explained the recovery process. Arizona and Callie attended every one of their grandson's PT appointments and Callie checked his leg every day until he was fully recovered.

**Chapter 31**

The fog cleared, Callie was in the woods, not on the plane this time.

"Lexi!?" she heard Mark's voice calling. "Lexi!?"

Arizona's blood curdling scream invaded the scene. She squeezed her wife's hand tightly.

Meredith and Christina ran past them calling for Derek

"You're going to make it Lexi" Mark tried not to sound like he was begging

"Mark, I'm going to die here" Lexi told the truth.

"Stay with me Mark, we need you, Sophia needs you" Arizona pleaded, trying anything to keep him alive.

"Ouch! Dammit!" Mark cried.

"Agh!" blind and in the dark, Mark yelled again, banging his head as he tried to run in the other direction.

Callie started in horror. In all her years, this was the worst thing she'd ever seen. Her best friend, work husband, former lover, father their oldest daughter, was careening around. Running in one direction, hitting a tree, falling back. Getting up, lunging in another direction, he tripped on a piece of debris, falling face forward onto the hard ground. Standing up again, he tried to escape his hell but ended up bent over at the waist, a jagged edge of the fuselage gutting into his midsection.

"Stop hurting me!" Mark cried desperately.

"Oh my God!" Callie cried, grabbing Arizona, "Mark, take your hands off your eyes!" Callie yelled then trying to run to Mark. She made no forward progress, her feet were not allowed to move. Lexi formed in the woods and came to stand with Arizona and Callie. Holding Callie's arm letting her know she was exactly where she was supposed to be.

The scene replayed itself over and over and over again. Mark calling out "Lexi!?, Arizona's scream, Meredith and Christina ran past them calling for Derek and on and on. Then Mark Sloan doctor and lover extraordinaire careening into a tree, slamming into the ground, cut in half by jagged edges of twisted metal.

Callie was reeling herself in. She wasn't going to be able to run to her friend, save him. She looked at Lexi, then Arizona, her guides, remembering they had both been here many times before and undoubtedly had the same initial reaction. Then it started. Callie felt hurt rising up in her. Arizona and Lexi sensed it, both turning to her. Out of the corner of her eye, Callie saw the women take a step back as her anger became a monster about to explode.

"Mark" Callie said firmly. "Mark!" she demanded. "Maaaaarrrrkkk!" she screamed, now possessed by her anger. "I needed you, you left us! You, Mark Sloan! You made this baby and didn't come back! You freaking irresponsible asshole! You never really cared about me! Second time you jerrrrk! Your...daughter...had...to... grow...up... with...out...you!" Callie spoke her truth, a little and Mark's a lot. She mirrored him. He spent so much energy avoiding his fears that he ended up inserting them in those around him. Callie gasped, then settled herself in a few breaths. Her part was over.

A new semi-transparent formed in front of Sloan. Callie was no longer talking but her sentences filled the woods around them. The identity of the transparency was changing several times a second. Mark himself, Callie, Arizona, Sophia, Lexi, Addison, and Sheppard and on and on it went. Thousands of faces familiar and not to the witnesses flickered into existent to join the chorus of critical voices then vanished, making room for the next.

Mark slammed his palms over his ears as the voices grew louder and louder. When the decibel level became inhuman; Mark Sloan was at the end of his rope. In a final bid for survival, he yelled back at the top of his lungs; "Noooooooooo!" He yelled again and again and again his voice went horse, then falling to the ground, breaking down. Writhing as emotional pain taking physical form leaked out of him. A great weight was lifting. Slowly his heaving chest quieted. "I was worth it," a heart wrenching primal whine came out of him. I was worth taking care of…"

For Arizona, this was familiar, she had been there too.

The scene before Callie stopped. The noise replaced by silence, Meredith and Christina stopped running. Lexi the new stood her ground beside Callie. Lexi under the plane slowly but surely pulled herself out, standing up. Arizona, broken and Jerry, paralyzed joined the group. Slowly, the Grey's spirits of the woods turned their gaze to Mark Sloan. Lexi of the woods walked over and into the Lexi Callie knew now. The Arizona's combined too. Callie understood now, Mark was choosing to let go of trying to save them...so he could save himself.

In the corner of his eye, Mark saw a pinpoint of light. It was so out of place, he barely recognized it for what it was.

Mark Sloan had been on a mission his whole life, to save others and make things look right. It's no accident he became a doctor or that he specialized in plastics. Using his scalpel, he made a life erasing who a person was and where their lives had taken them.

Arizona recognized a guardian coming into form. Jackson turned his head nodding to her.

Sloan slowly picked himself up, he couldn't see much but did realize for the first time he had use of his hands, they were no longer gripped over his eyes. Not sure where he was going he knew only to walk towards the light. Arms out in front of him, he stepped forward cautiously, terrified that moving would only increase what had been buffeting him for an eternity.

The guardian walked beside him. Although Sloan wasn't aware of him yet, Jackson carefully guided him away from stationary objects.

One by one the Grey's of the woods faded away. Callie, Arizona and Lexi were left at the crash site.

"I want to, but it feels like we can't go with him" Callie half stated, half asked.

"Jackson will take care of him, Mark's safer now," Arizona was sure.

"He's just started his journey, but we'll all be together again. And that day, will be a good day" Lexi smiled knowingly at the other women.

Standing in a circle, holding hands; Alexandra "Lexi" Grey, Calliope "Callie" Torres and Arizona Robbins erased the plane, the debris field, and then the woods around them. Their friend was done here and the women made sure he would never pass this way again.

**Chapter 32**

Arizona kept up her volunteering with the tiny humans she'd been created to care for before, during and after her most recent lifetime. Heaven threw a series Ortho cases Callie's way, she performed admirably but came to understand her identity as a bone cracker was her past, not her present. She tried a few other things. Gardening for one. Her long ago Ortho nurse on earth Colleen turned avid gardener inside heaven's gates invited her to stay for awhile. Callie always liked the idea of a garden but after her second day in Colleen's back yard, politely told her this was too much of a change of pace. Callie hung out with Teddy and her guys for a while. Closer, but still not quite right. She visited her parents, sister, Owen, some former patients and others to see what they were up to. She even dropped in on Erica Hahn who was still forcefully practicing medicine.

"Maybe I'm not supposed to do anything but keep an eye on our family" Callie mentioned to Arizona one day. "I mean I'm fine with that I guess."

Arizona did notice Callie had been searching for a long time. She wasn't sure how to advise her since her mission never skipped a beat. She was about to say something soothing and encouraging, then changed her mind.

"Umm, you do have some duties other than the kids you know," Arizona reminded her seductively.

Callie cocked an eyebrow "Not that you aren't enough and everything but all day every day? I have a lot of time on my hands." She challenged her wife.

"Oh I can cut back on my activities if we want to re-focus" Arizona tossed the offer over her shoulder, "Let me know" she said turning back to face her, slowly unzipping the long silver zipper on her navy sweater, then heading for the bedroom. Callie popped out of the living room and into their bedroom before Arizona walked the same distance. Both laughed out loud when Arizona rounded the corner to see Callie in lingerie, already waiting in their bed. "You always were my kinda girl" Arizona said laughing again. She jumped on the bed, pressing Callie into a deep kiss.

One morning a patient chart appeared next to Callie. Another case, the thought,_ maybe this is my fate.._.Reading the chart: Rebecca Farmer, 17 years old, right arm at the shoulder amputee, broken ribs. Leaving a party with alcohol and drugs on board, the homeless teen was robbed, beaten and left in an alley. Before daylight her arm was accidentally run over by a trash truck backing up to empty a dumpster. Unconscious and bleeding badly she needed emergency surgery. If at all possible, Orthos try to have a patient conscious, at least long enough to tell them they're going into surgery and will be waking up without a limb. Studies show that even a few minutes preparation for a life changing event is better than none. Rebecca had no such chance. _Interesting, an earth case…_ Callie pondered.

Callie floated into the Midwest hospital and Rebecca's room, #2416. Born to crappy parents, she lived a painful life and at age 14 ran away, unfortunately but correctly assessing she was safer on the streets than in her father's house. She never knew her mother.

Rebecca or "Beck" and she was called by her comrades was coming out of the anesthesia. Callie looked for the earth nurse. In her day, she'd insisted her patients never wake up alone. Beck stirred, coming back to reality. Callie stood bed-side. Beck, like most humans wouldn't know she was there but Callie felt it was the right thing to do anyway. Beck blinked her eyes a few times, zeroing in on her surroundings, then fell back asleep. Half an hour later she awoke in earnest. Squinting to adjust her blurry vision and feeling a dull ache in her right arm, she lifted her hands to rub her eyes, only one came up.

Whipping the covers back, the tattooed and pierced hell raiser rolled her eyes reacting to her amputation…"Oh, come on…What the Fuc##### He##!" No tears, no shock, no "why me?" Beck took it in her stride, adding this to an existing laundry list of life's hard knocks she was determined to overcome. As far as Callie was concerned, _that's the definition of badass!_ and immediately fell in love with the teen as if she were her own!

Beck and Callie helped each other. For a human, Beck was remarkably aware. She never saw Callie but was receptive to a fair amount of what Callie sent her way. Beck started Callie down the path of her new calling. Callie stayed with her through her recovery, and beyond. Beck came to recognize her mugging and amputation as a major turning point in her life, for the better.

In a department store a few years later, Callie slipped her hand into a jewelry display case, using her pointer finger to gently circle a small pendant. Furrowing her brow, Beck noticed a small silver angel necklace. Although never religious, she felt compelled to buy it anyway. It cost exactly the amount of cash she had in her pocket. From then on, Beck had a habit of rubbing the pendant in between her fingers when she found herself at a crossroads. Right on cue, Callie would appear by her side and guide her. _Maybe I have a guardian angel?_ Beck half wondered, half knew for the rest of her life.

Back in heaven, Arizona became accustomed to a succession of hard headed teenagers coming to stay with them. Spending her afternoons on the beach, when she saw a young person 12-18 years old with a particularly defiant look on their face walking up the shoreline; she simply got their attention and using her thumb, pointed over her shoulder. The teen would look up to the porch of the beach house in San Diego and see a tall, sturdy, brown skinned brunette, standing, left hip cocked, hands on those hips, staring out at them. Callie's posture although decidedly not maternal at that moment, put the teens at ease. They knew immediately...she was strong enough to hold them.

**Epilogue**

Callie visited the crash site three more times. Arizona went with her the first two times, where Callie had minor lessons to learn, information that she didn't have access to on earth. The third visit was different, Callie announcing one morning it was time for her to make a final visit, on her own. She headed off with a smile from Arizona.

The moment she was gone Arizona started pacing. Many horrible things happened in the four days the Grey's surgical team waited for rescue, evidenced by the fact that not one of them got out of there fully intact. But none more terrifying than the nights, when the animals came calling, doing the duty nature set before them. Unable to move, Arizona was forced to be a bystander, hearing Christina and Derek fight a losing battle to protect Lexi's body. You see, this was the opposite of everything a surgeon is. Surgeons put people back together.

Thankfully, somehow in her shock and grief, Meredith was spared the reality of her sister's final fate. Although bending the angle she needed to caused unimaginable pain, Arizona "held" Mark close, by wrapping her arm around his head - covering his ears - when he was conscious during the night. Jerry the pilot was also spared. By the second night, Derek was too traumatized to fight anymore, instead assigning himself the duty of re-covering what was left of Lexi's body every morning with a tarp and blankets they found in the wreckage. He of course never, ever spoke of it to his wife.

By the third night, Christina too had to accept Lexi's fate, although she would spend a lifetime secretly wishing she had been stronger. Arizona never wanted Callie to know and was successful their whole lives together. " I couldn't see that far" she told Callie. Technically true...but only because a piece of debris was in her way. She heard everything. Now, she had to prepare for the possibility that Callie saw the truth this time.

The moment she reconciled in herself, to simply tell Callie the truth about why she hid this from her, Arizona's real truth hit her like a ton of bricks. It wasn't really about Lexi... Lexi was a metaphor... In her own way, Arizona had been hurt, vulnerable, ripped apart and consumed by the plane crash. Unable to control her body, her emotions or her circumstances, she was laid bare, exposed and chopped apart for all to see... The difference between her and Lexi was, Lexi didn't have to live with it after.

At the plane, Callie inhaled deeply; making her final survey of the crash site. She was complete here. If she returned, it would be for other's sake. This trip was her final chapter in understanding what happened to her wife and by association, their life after. Heartbreaking was the only description that surfaced in her mind, seeing her wife laid bare. It arrived with a tear. Wiping the wet streak from her cheek, Callie realized she hadn't cried in ages. She'd learned heaven's way and was comforted by it; no accidents, everything is as it is supposed to be.

Callie entertained the idea of whisking herself home, grabbing Arizona in her arms, consoling her now that she fully understood her wife's fate. Then the sun caught the corner of her eye. She turned towards it deciding to take a long walk in the woods first. Over time, her need to visit her grief, in the form of "understanding", on her wife dissipated. By the time she reached the edge of the woods, her heart was the size of her whole body, her path clear, to surround this remnant of Arizona's life with love and acceptance..

Seeing Callie reappear across the room, Arizona kept her distance, anxious to know what Callie knew. If she'd seen her exposure…her failure.

Callie was shocked for a moment. Arizona looked smaller, hunched somehow. Callie inhaled and exhaled deeply, making her way slowly across the room, responding with urgency would only exacerbate Arizona's fears. "I think I'm done there now" she said quietly, taking the blond in her arms. "How about you?"

_She knows..._Arizona understood. Half choking, half crying, several primal noises and tears escaped her. Then she felt it, Callie's heart, and knew there was nothing left to fear. Arizona stood in the embrace, not knowing how long. _Minutes? Hours? Days?_ she wondered.

Callie's heart slowly expanded and wrapped itself around and through her. Together they were bathed in a glow brighter than either had seen in heaven. One by one, the wrongs Arizona believed she'd committed around her guilt formed in her. Together, she and Callie watched them, bathed them in a purple light until they dissipated into nothingness.

"When you're ready," Callie whispered in her beloved's ear, "just fall into me". When the time was right, Arizona did. The last part of her finally coming home. Callie's heart, waiting to welcome her.

THE END

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it. I had a great time writing this!

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